


Level Up

by frillyhella



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Baker Laura, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff, Online Gamers AU, game store employee carmilla, laura has a cat named ellie, no supernatural, really just an excuse to write fluffy hollstein moments, so much fluff it's gross
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-05-21 09:41:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 35,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6046891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frillyhella/pseuds/frillyhella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>online gamers au in which carmilla betrays laura during an online game of dayz and laura is absolutely PISSED. but guess who laura meets at the video game store the next day? that's right: carmilla. laura doesn't realize who carmilla is at first and they flirt a little, but then the realization of who she is hits her like a train. kirsch (the friend they didn't know they had in common) steps in and saves the day. he forces them to coexist and tries to fix the mess they've made. laura doesn't like carmilla. carmilla doesn't really care. can they start over again and make things work? (lol we all know they can lbr)</p><p>(this is literally just an excuse to write fluffy hollstein, so please enjoy)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Got Your Back. Or Not.

**Author's Note:**

> okay, so i saw this online gamers prompt on tumblr and i couldn't resist writing this fic. i apologize for any mistakes and encourage you to warn me about any you may find. i can't give you an update schedule yet, but i can tell you that i have this fic very well thought out and every chapter is already planned. chapter 2 is almost finished and chapter 3 is in progress, so don't expect to wait too long for an update.  
> okay, i hope you enjoy this fic. i hope its not a total disaster lol. anyway, enjoy :)

You’ve been on this server for about an hour now. You’re all geared up and looking for a car. Earlier you spotted a group of players not far from you and they could easily take you down if they find you, so you need to get the hell out of here, otherwise it’s game over.

You’ve been playing DayZ nonstop ever since you bought it on Steam last week. You’ve gotten pretty good at it pretty fast, as you usually do with every game. You think that all this sitting and screen time - and also the embarrassingly large amount of cookies you’ve pretty much inhaled by now - must be doing wonders for your body. Your dad would have a nervous breakdown if he knew about your bad habits.

You’re an honest player. You really are. You’re not one of those players whose sole purpose on this game is to hunt and kill the other players on the server. Yes, at first you did try and help everyone you met along the way, but that has proven to get you killed or looted (most times both) more often than not. So now you just tend to stay in the shadows whenever you spot another player. You assess the situation first, and then you decide if it’s safe to reach out and help.

This map is huge though, so you’re having a hard time just trying to find a working car to drive to a town on the other side. When you finally find one, you set a checkpoint for your destination on your mini map and start driving.

About halfway through you spot a player running in the middle of the road in front of you. They’re using a female character and you can’t help but wonder how probable it is that it’s really a girl playing. The odds on that are low, but as you get closer their gamertag reads ‘@heycarmilla’ so maybe it really is a girl? Maybe.

They’re not wearing any gear as well, which probably means they’ve just entered the server, so you think it’s safe to approach. Maybe even help if you can. They do seem a bit lost after all.

You adjust your headset and drive closer, trailing right behind the other player.

“Hey, friendly player here. Do you have a headset?”

You hear some scuffling followed by a raspy women’s voice. “If you’re going to kill me you might as well just get on with it and run me over with your car.”

Wow. How someone can sound sexy over a headset, you don’t really know, but you’re confused by her response.

“Why would I do that? I said I was friendly.” You hear her chuckle.

“That’s what everyone says until they shoot you and take your stuff. It’s just the way the world works, Cutie.”

Cutie? You’ve been talking to this person for literally less than a minute and she’s already calling you nicknames? Plus, she doesn’t even know what you look like, why is she calling you Cutie? Anyways.

“I wouldn’t do that. It’s just a game anyway, no need to be so dramatic about it. I want to help you.”

“Why should I trust you?” She’s still running while you trail right behind with your car.

“If I wanted to kill you I would’ve done it a long time ago, trust me.” And it’s true, you could have run her over right when you first saw her. But you didn’t. And now you absolutely won’t. You’re admittedly intrigued by this girl.

“That’s fair.” She suddenly stopped running and you almost ran her over because of how close you were trailing behind her. You’re so glad you didn’t. That would _not_ have helped your case. At all.

“Then get in the car already and tell me where you want to go.” That came out maybe a little harsher than you intended, but you hear her chuckle anyway.

“Oh. So bossy, Cupcake.” You can’t help but roll your eyes at the nickname. “Careful. I might actually like that.” You swear you can hear the smirk in her voice as she said that.

“I’m heading to that little town down South. By the lake. I heard it has a lot of stuff to loot.” You inform as she gets in the passenger sit and you start driving. “Wanna come with?”

“Sure thing, Creampuff.”

Okay, that’s it. You’ve had enough with the stupid edible nicknames. “Okay, could you stop with the stupid edible nicknames? Please and thank you.”

“I would, but to be honest I’m not a big fan of Lois Lane.”

You audibly gasp at the nonsense that juts came out of her mouth. “EXCUSE YOU? Lois Lane is totally AWESOME. How dare you criticize my gamertag like that?”

She laughs loudly in response. “Whatever you say, Sweetheart.” You roll your eyes for what feels like the 100th time. At least this one wasn’t an actual edible object. “What’s your real name anyway?”

“Why would I tell you?”

“Why wouldn’t you?” You’re surely going to injure yourself with this many eye rolls.

“Well, my dad always told me you shouldn’t share your personal information with strangers on the internet.” You say, half playfully, half seriously. You hope she gets it.

“Well, my mom always told me not to get in cars with strangers and here we are.” She responds with a lazy, unaffected tone. You feel like she’s mocking your response.

“Very funny.”

“You know my name. I think it’s only fair I know yours.”

So _Carmilla_ really is her name? You think that’s actually… kind of cute… Whatever. “Still, there’s a high chance _Carmilla_ is not your real name.”

“Seriously? Whatever. Suit yourself, Lois.” She sounds a bit annoyed.

“It’s Laura.” You blurt it out without even thinking. But you don’t regret revealing your real name to Carmilla.

“What?”

“My name. It’s Laura.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard. Was it, Cupcake?” You roll your eyes as far back as they would go.

“Well, now that you know my real name you could, you know… USE IT.”

She giggles on the other side. “Where’s the fun in that, Cutie?”

“Uugghh, whatever.” You’re more than ready to give up on this nickname situation.

You continue driving in comfortable silence for a bit when you start hearing the sound of another car behind you. You move your mouse around so you can look for it. You spot it and they’re still a bit far from you, so you’re not sure they’ve spotted you.

“Do you think they see us?” You ask Carmilla, looking straight ahead again so you can drive properly and hopefully not crash into a tree or something.

Suddenly you hear gunfire and bullets ricocheting off of your car.

“Yup. They definitely see us.” Carmilla answers.

 _Crap_. You drive off the main road and dodge the trees in your way. There’s a little town with a few houses up ahead that should work great for cover.

“Shit. I don’t have any weapons, Cupcake!”

“We’ll take cover in one of those houses and I’ll give you some.” You’re too focused dodging trees and trying not to crash and burn this car to notice the innuendo in your words.

You hear Carmilla laugh and you’re not sure what can possibly be so funny when you have bullets flying over your head and you’re slaloming trees like a maniac.

“Is it really the most appropriate time for such activities?” Carmilla asks with a low seductive voice that leaves you a bit confused.

“What? What are you talking abo-OH.” You nearly hit a tree. “SHUP UP, CARMILLA. NOW IS REALLY NOT THE TIME. FOCUS ON THE GAME. PLEASE.” You can feel how red your face is. How inappropriate can this girl be? You don’t want to find out.

“Calm down, Cupcake. No need to get so flustered.” Camilla is laughing at your reaction. “Just ty not to crash and kill us both.”

“I am NOT flustered. Don’t flatter yourself.” You say, failing miserably at hiding how flustered you actually are.

“Sure you’re not, Sweetheart.” Carmilla responds with a low seductive voice again, that only serves to make you even more flustered.

You finally reach the small town and move inside one of the houses. You close the door behind you and open your inventory to drop some guns, ammo and health supplies on the floor for Carmilla. She picks them up with a quick _‘thanks, Cutie.’_ and you make your way to one of the windows facing the front of the house.

“Did you check how many were inside the car?” You ask, looking out the window but not seeing anyone out there.

“I’d say I’m about 70% sure there were two guys.”

“Wow, 70% sure? Greeaaat…“ You can no longer hear the car’s engine and not knowing where the bad guys are always makes you nervous.

“Getting sassy are we, Cupcake? Just keep watch on the front of the house. I got the back covered.”

“I learned from the best.” You tease her and hear her chuckle in response, which helps you relax a little.

You focus on the front of the house and after a while you finally spot a player lurking in the bushes.

“I see one!” You shout and you take four shots in the player’s direction, hitting your target every time. You see the animation of the hostile player’s character laying down on the floor, defeated. The ultimate confirmation comes when you can read _@johnnyC89 was killed by @LoisLane_ on the bottom of your screen. You can’t help but throw your hands up in victory. “GOT HIM.”

“Good job, Sweetheart.” Carmilla says with a genuine tone. “Keep an eye out for the other one. I haven’t spotted him yet.”

You comply and return to your previous position looking out the window. You suddenly get shot twice and jump on your chair (a little higher than you would ever care to admit). You don’t understand what happened. You had the front of the house covered and he is nowhere to be seen. Your health is rapidly dropping and you don’t have any more bandages in your inventory to heal your character.

“Carmilla, bandage me! Please! Did you see him? I don’t know what happened. I had the front of the house and he was nowhere and-“

“Cupcake, it wasn’t him.” Carmilla interrupts you. She sounds oddly calm and not totally freaking out like you are.

“What do you mean it wasn’t him?” You move your mouse to look at her and she’s pointing her gun at you. You’re laying on the floor, defenseless. The only thing that could help right now are the bandages you gave Carmilla when you first entered the house. You finally wrap your head around what’s really happening and you’re fuming. “WHAT THE HELL, CARMILLA. I TRUSTED YOU.”

“It’s just a game, Cutie. No need to be so dramatic.” Carmilla reminds you of the words you spoke to her earlier.

“WHAT THE HECK IS YOUR PROBLEM?” You shout as your health reaches 0% and the words _Killed by @heycarmilla_ appear on the center of your screen. “I WAS HELPING YOU. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS? AND DON’T YOU DARE LOOT MY STUFF.”

“Too late, Sweetheart.” You can hear the smugness in her voice and the desire to punch your computer screen is at an all-time high. “Have a good night. And don’t go breaking any keyboards.” Oh, you want to. You really do.

You get disconnected and you stare blankly at the screen in front of you. You can feel the rage bubbling inside you so you need to step away from your desk to distract yourself with something else. You can’t let yourself turn into one of those 13 year olds who throw the controller at the TV when things don’t go their way.

You do, however, forget to take off your headset as you sit up on your chair to leave. The speakers the chord is attached to almost get dragged to the floor, but the chord snaps before that happens.

“Crap! These things are super expensive!” You whine and examine the damage you’ve made.

The chord is completely detached from the headset, making it officially broken. You’re furious at the thought that this is all Carmilla’s fault. _God, that girl is annoying!_

You’re going to have to stop by the game store tomorrow so you pull out your phone and send a quick text to your friend Kirsch.

 **Little Nerd:** hey Kirsch, r u working tmrw?

 **Big Puppy Kirsch:** hey little nerd! yeah why

 **Little Nerd:** I broke my headset :((((((

 **Big Puppy Kirsch:** that sucks!!! come by at like 4

 **Little Nerd:** alright, thnks K. see u tmrw :)

 **Big Puppy Kirsch:** no problem. g’night lil nerd

 **Little Nerd:** u too :)

You put your phone down and sit back on your chair. You scroll through the game sales on Steam and then you receive a friend request along with a message. You cannot believe you’re seeing this with your own two eyes.

_@heycarmilla sent you a friend request_

**@heycarmilla:** better luck next time, cutie ;)

You never wanted to throw your computer out the window so much before. _SERIOUSLY? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?_ You want to smash the _block_ button right away, but you can’t let her win like this. You’re not going down without a fight.

 **@LoisLane:** that was a real dick move you pulled. hope you’re happy with yourself.

You wait impatiently while Carmilla types a new message.

 **@heycarmilla:** oh im very happy. thanks for the food and ammo btw :)

 _Of course this raging bi- BAD PERSON stole my stuff! Uuugh!_ You cannot believe this girl.

 **@LoisLane:** fuck u.

 **@heycarmilla:** wow, watch your language cupcake. im a sensitive girl.

 **@LoisLane:** kindly, fuck u.

 **@heycarmilla:** see? much better. anyway, if you ever want a rematch just hit me up ;)

 **@heycarmilla:** have a good night cutie. xo

Talking to her is not doing you any good. She’s only making you more upset. You need to leave it. She’s not worth it.

 **@LoisLane:** whatever

You are so done with this girl. _Who does she think she is?_ You shut down your computer and leave the bedroom. No more video games for today. Your headset is ruined anyway.

You go to the kitchen and spot your cat Ellie sitting on top of the counter. She looks at you so you go and try to pet her, but as you get closer she starts hissing and then quickly jumps off the counter and disappears into your bedroom.

Ellie has always been a bit of an asshole to you, which offends you deeply because you have given her nothing but love and affection. You figure she’s just a bit more anti-social than most cats.

Ellie does let you pet her sometimes though. You feel like the _chosen one_ in those very rare moments. She has to be the one to initiate contact though, otherwise you are certainly going to get a few scratches. Ellie has even slept on your bed before, but that only happened like three or four times. You’re pretty sure she was just confused or something.

But despite all the clawing at your favorite armchair, the cat hairs everywhere and the object knocking off of high surfaces, you still love that grumpy ball of fur. Ultimately Ellie does help a lot. Ever since you got her, you don’t feel so alone all the time. And also so useless. You love having that tiny living thing as your responsibility. 

You grab a few snacks from the kitchen and plop down on the couch. Maybe binging something on Netflix will help you relax and forget that this whole situation with Carmilla ever happened.

 

* * *

 

 

You set your headset down next to your keyboard and step away from the desk. You have a weird feeling bubbling in your chest, but you can’t quite figure out what it is? Wait, is that… Is that guilt? Maybe regret? No, it can't be. You were just messing with the girl you found online. You do this all the time. What the hell is wrong now?

You make your way to the kitchen and grab a beer from the fridge. As you lean against the counter, you pop the beer cap open and take a big gulp from it.

You’ve had a crappy day, that’s for sure. Some lady at work came in yelling at you because apparently her son failed to mention all the violence in GTA V and she was not pleased when she found out about it. Of course, the lady felt the need to let it out on the first store employee she could find. That employee happened to be you. Of course… This is why you hate working the main counter shifts.

This happens all the time, but today it annoyed you more than any other day. You’re sure it had something to do with the call you received from dear mother just moments before the whole angry mom incident at the store.

Your relationship has always been a bit rocky. Your mother always had certain expectations for you. She has pressured you from a young age to work in your family’s company, which you never wanted to do.

When you started going against your mother’s wishes, you both clashed.

She would constantly criticize every decision you made. She made your life a living hell for a while. But you fought back. You stood for what you believed in and fought for your own future. You sure as hell didn’t want to spend it working for your mother. So you worked during high school to get enough money to move out on your own when you turned 18. Much to your mother’s disapproval, you moved to the city just a month after graduating.

At first it was rough. Your apartment wasn’t much of an apartment. More like a tiny bedroom. And as much as you hate to admit this: you were lonely. You didn’t know anyone. But you pushed through. Apparently Kirsch had moved to the city after graduating like you did and when he contacted you, you didn’t hesitate in reaching out to him as well.

Kirsch was your lab partner in chemistry class and you hated him at first. He seemed like the typical popular jock jackass, but you later learned that he’s actually just a puppy in human form. To this day you still can’t quite understand how on earth you two became friends. Let’s be real, the only things you two have in common are probably your love for video games and women.

So far that seems to be enough though, because deep down you love the big puppy (although you’ll never admit it to anyone, specially to him). And you’re forever grateful to him because he got you this job at the video game store. You’ve been working there together for three years now.

You love your job. You really do. But it’s days like these when you just want to throw x-box controllers at yelling costumers.

And to add to all of this, now you’re feeling bad for messing with a stranger online? Sure, maybe you did take out your frustration on an innocent stranger, and that isn’t fair. You know that. But you’ve done it so many times before. What’s different now?

You think maybe it’s the fact that all the other times you’ve done it, the victims were annoying fifteen year olds. This time it was a nice girl with a soft voice. You’re always a sucker for a soft voice.

But it’s not just that. The girl had a fire in her. She was stubborn and headstrong. You couldn’t help not getting her all riled up just to see what her reaction would be.

You didn’t really want to pull the trigger and kill her in the game. At least not so soon. But this is what you always do: lure players in and then get their stuff. Now that you think about it, you don’t think you’ve kept any other player around as long as Laura was. You were breaking your own rules there.

You couldn’t however resist sending the girl a friend request and a message, and the response you got did surprise you a bit.

She seemed even more pissed at you, which you didn’t think was possible, but you can’t blame her. And you don’t. Because you know what you did was shitty and, in all honesty, if you could go back and not do it, you would.

All of these thoughts are definitely not helping the guilt and regret that have been building in your chest ever since you first aimed your gun at her.

 _Okay, what the hell?_ You shake your head and push yourself away from the counter and towards the living room. You’re overthinking this. She’s just a stranger. And what’s done is done. There’s nothing for you to do. Right now you just need a distraction.

As if she can read your thoughts, Elsie sends a text asking you to come over. Apparently this girl can’t take a hint, because you’ve been ignoring her texts and calls for the past two weeks.

You two had your fun, but now it’s over. You don’t know why it’s so hard for her to understand that. You don’t do relationships and she knows that.

You ignore her text again because you’re really not in the mood right now. The thought of going to the bar and maybe try to get another girl crosses your mind, but you dismiss it. Right now all you want to do is lay on your couch and watch a movie.

And that’s exactly what you do. You flop down on your couch, you bring up Netflix and start scrolling through your options. There’s nothing like a late night movie session to relax at the end of a rough day. And the beer helps a little as well.

 

* * *

 

 

The next day rolled around and you’re having a shitty day.

Everything seems to be working against you. Rude costumers, the delivery guy messed up the order, the dough mixer (which is probably the piece of equipment you rely on the most) is acting up again and you burned a batch of your bestselling cookies.

So, yeah. You’re not in the best mood.

You’re working the main counter, while Perry and Lafontaine take care of everything in the back, and you can’t stop looking at the clock. You told Kirsch you’d meet him at the store at 4 and it’s almost 3:30. You can’t wait to get the hell out of here. You don’t think you can handle any more work related stress today.

Soon enough Laf tells you the repair guy is on his way to fix the dough mixer and that they have everything under control, so you quickly finish up with your last costumer and run to the back of the store to get changed.

You wave Laf and Perry goodbye on your way out and you can hear Perry’s usual _‘ride safely, dear’_ as you leave the store and move towards your bike. You’re glad to see it’s still chained to the lamppost you usually leave it leaning against and with both tires full of air. The last thing you needed today was a flat tire. You unchain the bike and start pedalling to the game store.

You met Laf and Perry when you first moved to the city. Your dad wasn’t too happy when you told him you were moving to a big city and living alone. But you had too. There was nothing for you back home. Except for your dad of course, but you’ve been living under his wing since you were born and it was starting to feel suffocating.

You know this distance is hard on him, but ultimately it’s what’s best for you both. You can’t be his little baby forever and he can’t protect you from everyone and everything. He has to understand that. And you think he’s starting to.

You didn’t have much of a plan when you moved. Your dad helped you with your first apartment, all you had to do next was get a job. Which was no easy task at first, but then you literally stumbled onto your job at the bakery.

You were walking around, getting to know the city, when you spotted delicious looking cupcakes and cookies staring at you through a store window. You could never really resist cookies, so you decided to go inside and try them out.

Being the majestic creature that you are, you tripped on your feet and fell face first as soon as you opened the door. You busted your lip and there was blood everywhere, but Perry and Lafontaine were by your side helping you in an instant.

They were both so sweet to you in what has to be one of the most embarrassing moments of your life. You started going to the bakery regularly after that, and you became fast friends with them. Soon enough they were offering you a job.

You’ve been working at the bakery for four years now and you really like it. It’s fun, it’s hands-on and you get to work every day with your two best friends. Plus, you get free cookies pretty much whenever you want.

When it’s not too cold or raining, like today, you quite enjoy these bike rides. It’s a time for you to think and to look at the world around you. You love feeling the air hit your face and how your legs start burning when you pedal really fast. It makes you feel alive.

You continue weaving through traffic, and a few blocks later you’re chaining your bike to the lamppost in front of the video game store. You take off your helmet and make your way inside, looking for your friend Kirsch.

You met Kirsch through Danny a couple months ago when he joined you both in one of your gaming hangouts. You’ve since become good friends and often play together online and in real life. Now you come to the store a lot to hang out with him and also because he sometimes offers you great discounts.

Your way of thanking him is by letting him eat as many cookies as he can when he visits you at the bakery. You think he’s fine with that.

You look around for Kirsch and finally spot him working the front counter, but he seems busy with a very angry mom who’s waving a copy of Grand Theft Auto V in his face, telling him that no one warned her it was way too violent for her 10 year old kid.

You can never understand these angry moms because it literally says 18+ on the front of the box, but oh well. Kirsch looks at you so you shoot him a look of compassion, to which he responds with an overly exasperated look on his face when the angry mom isn’t looking.

You signal to him that you’re going to look around and you move over to the headset shelf. You didn’t do any research, as you normally do when you’re buying electronics, because you were expecting Kirsch to help you. It’s fine though. You have a general idea of what you want: good but cheap. As always.

You glance up from the shelf and you spot her. The dark haired, mysterious looking girl that you’ve been eyeing for a few weeks now. You think she’s kind of friends with Kirsch, but you’re not really sure. You haven’t had the chance to ask him about her anyways.

You know she has noticed you too. You’ve shared a few awkward glances. Hanging out with Kirsch may not be the only reason why you’ve been coming to the store so often lately… Maybe.

She has long dark curly hair, a slim figure, a jawline that should honestly be considered illegal, and she just gives off this mysterious vibe. You’re absolutely entranced by her every time you see her. You never seem to catch her working the front counter, so you’ve never really had an excuse to interact with her. She’s usually restocking or coming in and out the back room.

You two suddenly lock eyes for a few seconds and you’re not really sure what to do with your face. You find yourself slightly smiling at her because she has a nice face so what else would you do and oh god she ducked her head. Of course. You now look like a creepy weirdo. Great.

But then you think you notice her trying to hide a small smile and blush, but you’re not sure. She probably just thinks you’re a total weirdo.

You focus back on the headsets in front of you and continue studying your options.

//

It’s almost ten minutes later and you still haven’t made a choice. Kirsch is still getting yelled at by the angry mom and you’re stuck between two different headsets. You always overthink these decisions.

You look around for another employee, but the only one you spot is the dark haired girl. She’s standing on a three step ladder, lazily stuffing video game cases on the top shelf.

There’s no way you can talk to her after that awkward fest earlier, but you really want to get out of here already. Your day was awful and you can’t wait to get home so you can lay on your couch and continue binging Orphan Black like you were doing last night.

You’ve been wanting to talk to this girl for a while and now that the opportunity has presented itself, you can’t help but feel nervous. You’re the first one to admit that talking to girls is not you strong suit. Especially girls you’re so goddamn attracted to.

You think it’s time to suck it up and girl the hell up, so you start walking in her direction. You’re running all kinds of different scenarios in your head, but they all go out the window when you find yourself standing right behind her.

“Um… Hey! Hi. How are you?” _How are you?! Get it together, Hollis!_ “I just… um… need some help… and was, you know… wondering if you could… you know… help. Hehe. Please?”

 

* * *

 

 

Today you have the afternoon shift, which means you’re stuck here until the store closes at 6. Needless to say you’re not happy about that at all, but at least today wasn’t as shitty as yesterday.

Plus, you managed to avoid angry mom number 2. Poor Kirsch is the one dealing with that today. You don’t think you could handle another angry mom without doing something stupid that would surely get you fired. And arrested.

You still have two more hours to go, so you might as well do something. You’re making your way to the back room when you see her come in. Her sunny brown hair is disheveled, her cheeks are red and she’s holding a bike helmet, as usual. She looks gorgeous. As usual.

She shares a glance with Kirsch and then starts looking around the store. As she’s about to look your way, you enter the back room and close the door behind you.

You’ve been eyeing this girl for weeks, and you know she’s friends with Kirsch, but there’s no way you can ask him about her. He’d never leave you alone, or even worse: he would tell her. No, you can’t let that happen.

The thing is: you’re not really sure why you get like this every time you see her. She’s just a girl, right? Why does she make you feel this nervous and flustered? It’s like you’re a kid with a crush for god sake. Wait. Do you have a crush? That’s ridiculous, you don’t even know her name and you haven't even talked to her yet.

You’ve caught her looking at you several times though. You’re not sure if you’re making this up in your head or not, but you think the small glances at each other have kind of become your thing. Or she just thinks you’re a creeper who’s always staring at her. Yeah, that’s probably it.

You have to restock the Nintendo U games shelf, so you pick up a case full of them and make your way out of the backroom. You can’t hide forever and she’s just a girl. You can’t let her have this effect on you. It’s ridiculous and embarrassing. You have to keep your shit together.

You subconsciously look for her when you’re walking to the Nintendo section of the store, and you spot her looking at a pair of headsets with a confused and pensive expression. You can’t push away the thought of how cute she looks with her eyebrows pushed together and her mouth hanging a little to the side.

 _For fuck’s sake Karnstein._ Now is really not the time to be having such thoughts so you set down the case on the floor and reach for the small step ladder. When you’re done setting up the ladder where you need it to be, you can’t help but look at her again and this time she’s looking at you too.

You lock eyes for a few seconds and when you notice she’s offering you a shy smile, you don’t know what else to do other than look at the floor to hide your own smile and your very red face.

Since when do you duck your face in embarrassment when an attractive girl looks at you? It’s like your brain stops working when you look at her, what the hell? This has to stop. You’re Carmilla Karnstein. You don’t have crushes. You focus back on your task and decide to try to ignore her presence.

//

It’s ten minutes later and you’ve managed to not look at her once since that disaster of an interaction you two had earlier. You’re almost done with this shelf, but then you hear a sweet and weirdly familiar voice behind you.

“Um… Hey! Hi. How are you?” You slowly turn around, hoping it’s not who you think it is. “I just… um… need some help… and was, you know… wondering if you could… you know… help. Hehe. Please?” Great.

There’s no way you can escape now. You have to interact with this girl and you can’t make a fool of yourself. You have to put your game face on. You have to stop acting like a kid with a crush.

She’s right in front of you. Oh god, she’s right in front of you. You realize you’re staring, but she’s staring too, and oh god this is getting awkward. You have to end this. Put your game face on and get this over with.

And also why does her voice sound so goddamn familiar? You’re sure you’ve heard it before, but that doesn’t make sense. Whatever. _Time to focus, Karnstein. Don’t mess this up._

 

* * *

 

 

Wow. She’s standing right in front of you and you’ve never felt more attacked by someone’s beauty as you do now. She’s smirking at you and quirking an eyebrow and you finally realize why. You’re staring. Open-mouthed. Eyes wide open. Speechlessly staring at her beautiful face.

You shake your head and scream internally. That’s not embarrassing or weird at all. _Crap. Crap crap crap! She totally noticed me staring! Say something, Hollis!_

“Um… Hey!” _You already said hey, Hollis! What the hell is wrong with you?_

“Hey.” You hear her say with a smirk playing on her lips.

“Hi.” You say in an assertive tone. “I need your help with the headsets. If you- um. Maybe could- um. Yeah. Please?” You cannot believe how much you’re stuttering right now.

She lets out a short giggle which helps you relax a bit. “Sure thing, cutie.”

You feel your face turn red at the nickname, so you turn around to hide it and you guide her towards the headset section. _You’re doing great, Hollis! Don’t mess it up now!_ You two reach the aisle and you face her again and wow. Her beauty hits you every time like a high speed train. _Focus Laura!_

“So, I kind of broke my headset so now I have the perfect excuse to upgrade,” You turn to the headsets because her gaze on you is going to make you start stuttering again. “I’m just not sure which one I should choose.” _Boom. Nailed it. No stuttering. I totally deserve a cookie right now._

“I didn’t know Club Penguin could get that intense.” She teases you so you decide to play along.

“Excuse you?” You fake gasp, with a hand over your heart and an offended expression. “Club Penguin is not a game to be taken lightly. It gets very competitive out there. 10 year olds are ruthless.” You giggle and can’t help but feel proud at your lack of stuttering.

She lets out a loud laugh that you can’t wait to hear again as soon as it’s over. “Oh, is that so?” You nod, smiling. “Perhaps you could show me one day?”

Is that flirting? It is, right? You’re not exactly an expert, but you’re at least 80% sure that was flirting.

“Absolutely. I’d love that.” _Nailed it._ “I was actually playing DayZ though. I got up to leave and forgot I still had the headset on, which is so typical of me, and then the chord snapped.” You’re certainly not going to mention to the beautiful girl standing in front of you that this wasn’t the first time it happened. You’re already embarrassed as it is.

“Wait. DayZ? Are you serious?” she asks with a surprised look on her face and you nod. “I would’ve never guessed you were a DayZ kind of girl. I play it too and I have to say I’m impressed, Cupcake.” she says with a smirk playing on her face the whole time.

Realization hits you like a train and your smile rapidly vanishes.

 _Cupcake? Why does that sound so familiar? And she plays DayZ as well. Wait a sec- No. Nope. It can’t be._ You peek at the name tag hiding behind her dark curls. _CARMILLA. NO WAY._ Your eyes are now wide open and she’s giving you a confused look.

“You’re Carmilla?!” You whisper-shout at her.

“Um… Yes, Cupcake. I’m Carmilla.” She looks pensive for a second. “May I ask why you’re whisper-shouting my own name at me?”

“What’s your gamertag?” You demand. You think the anger in your face must be obvious by now.

“Wait- What? Why?” Carmilla looks apprehensive.

“Just tell me what your gamertag is.” You say a little louder than you wanted to, but you can’t really help it.

“It’s @heycarmilla.” She finally reveals and you let out an angry huff. “What the hell is going on, Creampuff?”

“I told you to stop with the stupid edible nicknames.” You say dryly, hoping she remembers your words from last night.

“What are you talking abo- Oh my god.” You notice when the realization of who you are hits her. “You’re Laura. No way.”

“Yes way. What the hell is wrong with you?” You’re glad you can confront this girl in person. Somehow texts and online messages don’t always translate your anger accurately.

You want to get an explanation out of her. Like why the hell did she shoot you in the back after you helped her and were nothing but nice to her.

“First of all, Cupcake, please do not murder me in my workplace. I don’t think my boss would appreciate that. He’s already all over me as it is. Second of all, it’s just a game. Why won’t you just let it go? Elsa did and now she’s happily freezing shit with her hands.”

Apparently Carmilla is physically incapable of not teasing you every 30 seconds.

“Oh my god. Do you ever not say stupid things? And you bet your ass I’m going to murder you right here!” Your face is probably red with anger by now and your fists are clenched by your sides.

“That bunched up face you make when you’re angry is hilarious, Buttercup.” Carmilla is now walking on a very thin line.

“You really want to die don’t you?” You don’t mean it of course.

You’d never do something like that, obviously. But no one ever seems to take you seriously, so you at least have to try to intimidate them somehow.

“Okay, let’s calm down a little, alright? No one’s killing anyone today, okay?” You huff but you let her continue. “Look, Cupcake, you were actually being nice before you knew who I was. Why can’t we just forget about yesterday and go back to you not wanting to kill me?”

She actually sounds sincere. And you hate to admit it, but technically she’s right. You two were indeed having a nice conversation and there was even some flirting. You’re at least 80% sure of it.

“I was being nice because I needed your help. Unlike you, I don’t stab the people that help me in the back when I no longer need them.”

“Technically I shot you in the back.” Your eyes go wide. “But you know, potatoh potahto…”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” You take a step towards Carmilla, although you’re not sure with what intentions, but someone blocks you from getting to her before you can figure it out.

“Wow there little nerd! Let’s relax, okay?” Kirsch says. “What the hell is going on?”

“I WILL RELAX WHEN YOU PUT ME DOWN KIRSCH.” He obliges but stands still between you and Carmilla. “Ugh, why do you always do that?”

“Well, I wouldn’t have to do it if you didn’t lose your chill so often!” He turns to Carmilla. “What the hell did you do this time?”

“Why do you always assume it was me?” Kirsch gives Carmilla a pointed look. “Whatever. The Cupcake here is mad because I beat her at DayZ.” Carmilla says with a smirk, looking directly at you the whole time.

“You did not beat me! I was helping you and then you betrayed me!” You try to defend your honor because what else can you do with Kirsch standing between you two.

“Wait, you two already knew each other?” Kirsch asks Carmilla, confused by the new bit of information. “My two little hotties were playing DayZ together and didn’t think to invite me? Uncool!” Kirsch finishes with a pout.

Carmilla smacks him in the arm at the use of the horrible nickname. “We didn’t know each other, you idiot. We met while playing yesterday.”

“That’s like, so awesome! What are the odds, like… Think about it!”

You do think about it for a moment. It is indeed intriguing how you have a friend in common with Carmilla (and also how you have been eyeing each other for weeks) but ended up meeting in a game with hundreds of servers and a huge map.

You have to admit that it’s a fascinating coincidence, but then the memory of Carmilla shooting you in the back comes to mind again so you glare at her.

“Clearly the odds were not in my favor.”

“Cupcake, if you could just let this go you’d see how much better you’d feel.”

“How many times do I have to tell you to STOP WITH THE STUPID NICKNAMES?”

No one’s ever made you feel this frustrated before. This girl has the ability to get on your nerve like no one else can. And to think you actually thought she was a nice girl and that you two even flirted for a bit.

“Wow little nerd!” Kirsch jumps in front of you again. “Listen, babes shouldn’t fight.” You notice how Carmilla rolls her eyes at his words. “It would be, like, so awesome if you guys could get along.”

“That’s never going to happen.” You say as you glare at Carmilla. You think you saw her grin falter a bit, but you’re not sure.

“See? The Cupcake hates me.” You shoot her yet another angry look. These nicknames have to stop. “There’s nothing you can do here, Beefcake.”

“Yes there is!” Kirsch says excitedly. “Come to my apartment for a Friday night gaming session. You guys can have a um… what’s the word I’m looking for… like a um… OH OH OH. A rematch! This way you could get your revenge, Laura, and then you guys will be even. No more babes fighting! What do you say?”

“Absolutely not.” “Seriously?” You and Carmilla say simultaneously.

“Dudes, just think about it! It would be so much fun!” You and Carmilla are still looking at him like he grew another head or something. “Alright, how about this then: Laura, you can invite Laf and Perry! We could do, like, teams! I have Will and Carmilla, and you would have Laf and Perry!”

You find yourself thinking about it and you’re surprised when you find yourself actually considering going. Sure, revenge would be great, but is it worth it? Is it worth having to put up with her just so you can get your revenge?

You’re not even really sure who Will is. You think you’ve heard Kirsch mention him a few times, but you don’t actually know who he is. You can bring Laf and Perry with you though, which is nice. They don’t game as much as you do, but they’re still pretty decent at most games.

Oh, why the hell not. Kirsch is right, you could totally get your revenge on Carmilla. Oh, how you’re going to LOVE to see the look on her face when you absolutely CRUSH her at whatever game you’ll be playing.

And then it hits you. You know exactly the perfect game you could play on Friday.

“Okay, I’ll go to your little gaming party.” You announce. “But with one condition.”

“Wait, you’re actually serious?” Carmilla looks at you with eyes wide open and you glare at her.

“What is it, Laura?” Kirsch asks.

“I pick the game.” You grin. “Mario Kart.”

Carmilla lets out a loud laugh. “What are we, five?”

“Oh, Laura here is a Mario Kart master!” Kirsch tells Carmilla. “You should watch out, angry hottie!”

“Guess we’ll see about that on Friday.” Carmilla smirks and walks away, making sure to rub shoulders with you.

“I’ll see you Friday, Kirsch. I’ll talk to Perry and Laf in the meantime.” You say as you glare at the back of Carmilla’s head.

As you’re about to step out of the store, Kirsch yells after you. “Hey, aren’t you going to get the headset?”

You curse internally and walk back over to Kirsch. It’s ridiculous how Carmilla gets you this disoriented and riled up. She sure is annoying and provocative, but you can’t help but think that she was right. You were indeed being nice to her before you knew who she really was.

Sure you’re nice to everybody, especially attractive girls you’ve been eyeing for weeks- NO. No, no, no. You can’t be having this kinds of thoughts about her anymore. What she did to you was horrible and you need to focus on getting your revenge. You can’t let her get in your head like this.

You’re already plotting your revenge anyway. There’s no way Carmilla can beat you at Mario Kart. Hell, no one’s beaten you at that game since you were a kid.

You used to play all the time on your awesome Nintendo 64 that your father gave you on your 9th birthday. You still have it stashed under your TV, next to all the more recent consoles. You sometimes still play with it when you’re feeling nostalgic.

You can’t wait to see the look on Carmilla’s face when you finally beat her. It’s going to be priceless.


	2. Friday Night Karts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so the rematch happens, but things don't go the way laura thought they'd go? idk, read and find out what happens folks.  
> there's a lot of flirting and teasing going on in this chapter, along with some silly shenanigans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this took longer to get out than I was expecting, but here it is!! woohoo!  
> anyways i hope you like it :)

It’s after 6 o’clock, the doors to the store are already closed and you’re just finishing up on a few things before you can finally leave and go home.

You’re still feeling a bit baffled by what happened with Laura earlier. You were certainly not expecting to meet her like this. Or to meet her at all in fact. You can’t really make much sense of this whole situation.

To think that the girl you were eyeing (and were too scared to approach for some reason…) for the past few weeks was the same girl you pissed off online… The universe must be playing a joke on you or something.

“Ready to go?” Kirsch suddenly sticks his head through the backroom doorframe, effectively making you jump a little as you were very much in your own thoughts and not aware of your surroundings.

“For fuck’s sake! Do you have to do that every time?” You glare at him and he chuckles.

“Sorry, bro.”

You grab your things and move past him towards the exit of the store. Kirsch is giving you a ride home, as he always does whenever you two work the same shift. You’re so glad he’s driving you today because you can’t wait to go home and finally finish the last episode of _Life Is Strange_ that you’ve been postponing for weeks.

You get to the car and as soon as you’re comfortably sitting in the passenger’s side, you plug the aux chord to your phone and open up Spotify. This used to drive Kirsch crazy when you first started doing it, but he’s learned by now not to fight you on this.

You put your playlist on shuffle and it lands on _Something Good_ by _alt-J_ which you’re satisfied with so you set your phone down on the center console and prop your feet up on the dashboard of the car.

“Dude, that’s like really unsafe.” You glare at Kirsch because you do this literally every time you’re in his car, but he still feels the need to tell you how unsafe it is every single time.

“Whatever, beefcake.” You look out the window and you can’t ignore anymore how everything that happened today (and also Laura) has completely taken over your thoughts. “So um… How’d you and Laura meet?”

Before everything happened and even before you knew Laura’s name, you knew she and Kirsch had some kind of friendship. You thought about asking him about her, back when you two shared innocent glances back and forth every time she came in the store, but you decided against it as you did not trust Kirsch to keep his mouth shut and go tell Laura that you were asking about her.

But now it doesn’t really matter anymore. Laura knows who you are and you’re pretty sure she hates you, so you suppose there’s nothing really left for Kirsch to mess up, right?

“Oh, I met her like, I don’t know, two months ago? Something like that. She was at one of D-Bear’s gaming hangouts.”

“Oh, so she’s friends with the giant ginger?” Figures.

Danny Lawrence. She was the captain of your rival team back when you used to compete in Counter-Strike tournaments. Although Kirsch was on your team, he somehow ended up friends with her but you refuse to coexist in the same room as her unless you absolutely have to. You’re pretty sure he has a giant crush on her.

Kirsch lets out a sigh. “When is this stupid rivalry between you and D-Bear going to stop?” He has tried countless times to make you two get along, but nothing ever worked. And probably nothing ever will.

“She’s the enemy. I don’t fraternize with the enemy.”

“Oh, come on dude, we stopped competing like two years ago or something.” Kirsch sure does try…

“Drop it, beefcake. We both know it’s never gonna happen.” He huffs at your response.

“Fine. Just wished two of my best bros would get along.” He pauses for a second and you think this pointless conversation is finally over. “Speaking of best bros, what was that all about with Laura today?”

You have to be careful talking about this with him. The worst thing that can happen right now is him knowing that you’ve been sharing glances with Laura every time she comes by the store. Yeah, you definitely don’t want him to know that. If he ever realizes that you’re… intrigued by Laura, he’ll definitely tell her. You don’t trust him not to, he’s always had a big mouth about stuff like this.

“Seems like she can’t take a loss or something, I don’t know…” You look out the window with the best bored expression you can muster.

“I know how Laura can be a little competitive-“

“A little?!” You interrupt him, he glares at you and continues.

“As I was saying before you interrupted me, which by the way, uncool bro.” You roll your eyes. “I know how she can be a little competitive, but I’ve never seen her that mad for losing before.”

“Your point?” You really don’t know where he’s going with this.

“I just wanna know what you did that got her all mad like that. I heard her say you betrayed her.” He says, trying to dig for more information. You scoff.

“Whatever dude-bro. She’s just mad because I shot her and took her stuff.”

He stays quiet for a moment, his hands gripping the steering wheel and his eyes on the road in front of him. “You’re still doing that?”

“Doing what?”

He glares at you for a moment and then turns his eyes back to the road ahead. “Don’t play dumb with me, bro. I know you like to terrorize players online.”

“So?” You’re so done with this conversation. He knows that’s what you do, you don’t see the point in him giving you a hard time about it every damn time you talk about this.

“So it’s annoying, bro.” You roll your eyes and sigh loudly. You can’t believe you two are having this conversation all over again.

“Look beefcake, DayZ gets pretty boring after a while. A girl’s gotta have some fun, ya know?” You say playfully and hope he drops it, but he just glares at you again.

“There’s other ways to have fun bro.” You give him a questioningly look. “You know, like, ways where you don’t have to be mean to everyone.”

“Why do you care so much anyway? You don’t even play DayZ.” He’s being more persistent about this than he’s ever been. You just want this conversation to finally end.

“Because I know you’re not like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like, you know, mean all the time.” You scoff. “Don’t even try and pretend like you’re not a big softy.”

“I don’t have to pretend because I’m not.”

“Bro, you cried when we watched E.T.” You stare at him with your eyes wide open and your eyebrows raised high. You cannot believe he had the nerve to go there.

“Oh my god, I did NOT cry watching E.T.” You’ll deny this forever.

“Sure you didn’t.”

That was not a great moment for you. In your defense, you were on your period so it was already a rough day, but then E.T. had to go and bop Elliot on the head with his weird luminescent finger and say ‘ _I’ll be right here’_ and like, how can you not get emotional at that? You’re only human after all.

Kirsch noticed you wiping your tears and snuffling when the end credits began. You had to aggressively threaten him to make sure he wouldn’t tell anyone. He took that threat very seriously apparently because you don’t think he’s told anyone yet.

“Look, I didn’t know it was Laura online, okay? I hadn’t even met her before so can we just drop this?”

“You hadn’t met her, but you’ve been wanting to.” Kirsch looks at you with a smirk on his lips and wiggles his eyebrows up and down and now you’re confused.

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?” Kirsch scoffs.

“Dude, you really think I haven’t noticed how you two are always exchanging glances when she comes by the store?” You speechlessly stare at him for a moment, trying to make sense of what he’s just said.

You stutter for a moment, trying to find the right words. “I don’t- What? I- What?” You’re so confused, you can’t even form a decent comeback to defend yourself.

This is exactly what you didn’t want to happen. You were honestly not expecting him to have noticed. You thought he would’ve teased you about it right away, that’s why you never asked about Laura.

“You two look like two little shy kids with a crush, bro. It’s honestly embarrassing to watch.” You stutter for a bit, trying to find words to deny it all, but he continues talking. “I know I can be oblivious sometimes, but I’m not THAT oblivious. I mean, you’d have to be pretty blind not to noti-“

“Stop right there, beefcake. I don’t know where you got the stupid idea that I’ve been staring at Laura or whatever, because I haven’t. So just drop it.” That came out a little harsh, but you have to stop this.

You can’t feed this idea that you and Laura have been sharing glances every time she’s at the store. You don’t trust him not to run his mouth to Laura. You don’t know how he hasn’t yet, with him having a big mouth and all. At least you don’t think he has. God, you really hope he hasn’t.

Kirsch makes a turn into your street and you’ve never been so glad to be home. You just want to get out of this car and far away from this conversation.

“Whatever you say, dude.” He finally stops in front of your building and you open the door to get out of the car. “Sure you don’t wanna hangout tonight?”

“No can do, beefcake. _Life Is Strange_ ain’t gonna finish itself.”

“You’re no fun. Spoiler alert, they all die in the end.” He says this every single time about every single video game or movie. You flip him off. “Be at my apartment by 7 on Friday. Don’t forget to tell Will.”

“Why would I be the one to tell him?”

“Because he’s your brother.” Is he being serious?

“You’re his roommate, you idiot.”

“Oh, right. Never mind then. Bye, angry hottie!” You ignore the obnoxious nickname and get out of the car.

It’s so funny how he can be so oblivious to a lot of things, but then be so perceptive about others. Of course he couldn’t have stayed oblivious to what mattered most: you and Laura.

Of course.

 

* * *

 

 

The oven timer starts beeping so you turn it off and pull out the tray filled with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. You set it aside to cool and go back to cleaning up the mess you left behind. It’s a Thursday so the bakery has been relatively slow. It usually gets busier at the end of the day when everyone is getting off from work.

You look at the clock hanging on the wall and see that it’s almost 4. Your shift is almost over, which you’re super glad for because all you want to do right now is go home and practice so you can beat Carmilla at Mario Kart tomorrow.

You’re not super worried. You’re pretty badass at Mario Kart. You just haven’t played in a few months, so a little practice won’t hurt.

Kirsch was supposed to text you the time you should be at his apartment tomorrow, so you clean the flour off your hands and retrieve your phone from your bag. As promised, there’s a text from Kirsch waiting for you.

 **Big Puppy Kirsch:** hey lil nerd! be at my place at 7 tmrw. are the ginger bros coming?

 _Crap._ You totally forgot to invite Laf and Perry. You stuff your phone on your back pocket and go find your two friends in the front of the store because you figure it’s better late than never. God, you really hope they can make it. You’re not sure you can go the whole night without tackling Carmilla or something like that if they’re not there to distract you and calm you down.

There are a couple of clients seated at the tables, but there’s no one in the front counter so you join your friends there.

“Hey guys, what are you doing tomorrow night?”

“We were gonna have dinner with Perry’s mom, but she canceled earlier. Some drama about her book club or something. We’re not sure.” _Thank god._ “Why do you ask?”

“Kirsch is having a little get-together tomorrow and I really need you guys to come!” Perry and Laf look at each other as if they’re having a wordless conversation about whether or not they should go. They do that a lot. You just really need them to come with you. “Please.”

“Is this going to involve video games again?” Perry asks you with a skeptic look on her face. She’s not the biggest fan of video games, but she’s oddly decent at Mario Kart so you really need her to be there tomorrow.

“Maybe?” You drawl out. They both give you a pointed look. “Alright fine! Yes there will be video games.” They both sigh. “But it’s Mario Kart! And I really need you to be there, so will you go with me? Please?” You give them your best puppy eyes. It usually works.

“Why do you want us to go so bad?” Laf asks and then a look of realization overcomes their face. “Wait a minute? Is this some sort of trap? Are we getting murdered or something?”

“Lafontaine, please!” Perry reprimands them.

“Laf, don’t be ridiculous. I just need you guys to help me kick Carmilla’s ass in Mario Kart.” Perry’s eyes go wide.

“Laura, language!”

“Sorry Per…” You huff loudly but give her an apologetic look.

“Wait, Carmilla as in Kirsch’s coworker slash bestie?” What the hell. How the hell does Laf know her name and you didn’t?

“Yeah, that’s the one, but how did you know her name?”

“I bumped into her and Kirsch a while ago and he introduced us. She seemed nice.” She seemed nice? That surely wasn’t the same Carmilla you met. “I thought you knew each other.”

“What? She’s definitely not nice. And why would I know her?”

“I don’t know, you’re always staring at each other when I go to the game store with you. It’s weird.” This is outrageous. You do NOT stare at her. Okay, maybe you did a little bit, but that was _BEFORE_. “Is that some sort of weird mating ritual?” Your eyes go wide and your eyebrows shoot to your hairline.

“What the- What?! I don’t know what you’re talking about! There’s no staring. There’s an absence of staring, in fact.” You’re getting really flustered now. You hate it when Laf mocks you like this.

“Lafontaine. Leave Laura alone, dear.” At least you can always count on Perry to be on your side whenever Laf is giving you a hard time about something.

“Come on, Per. I know I’m not the only one who’s noticed how they pine after each other.” PINE?! YOU DO NOT PINE. You look at Perry open mouthed and she’s deep in thought for a moment before she looks back at you.

“Lafontaine is right, dear. And you also get moody when she’s not at the store.” Scratch that. Perry’s just as bad as Lafontaine.

“We even have this game with Kirsch where we bet how many times you look at her. It’s hilarious. Guess who almost always wins?” Lafontaine looks at Perry and she has a triumphant little smile playing on her face. You hate them both so much right now.

Also, if Kirsch knows that you used to (that’s right, _used to_ ) look at Carmilla all the time, does this mean he told her? _Oh no_. That’s not good. That’s not good at all. The last thing you need is Carmilla knowing that you think she’s attractive. You don’t think that anymore, of course. Obviously not…

“I CANNOT BELIEVE- No. You know what? I’m not having this conversation with you.” Laf and Perry start giggling and you’ve never wanted to throw handfuls of flour at them so much before. “You two are coming with me tomorrow, we’re gonna beat Carmilla at Mario Kart and there will be no mentions of this ridiculously false accusation that we’ve been staring at each other. Understood?” You take a deep breath, recovering from your long and angry rant. You try to use your best intimidating voice, although you know it doesn’t work that well on Perry and Laf.

“Yes ma’am.” Lafontaine answers, trying to stop the giggling and hiding the smirk on their face. “Can I just ask why you have to win so badly?”

“We were playing DayZ and she killed me after I helped her. She ended up being a real b-“ Perry gives you a disapproving look. “b-bad person about it.” Perry nods at you, content with your choice of words.

“Why do you always get so worked up about these things, L? It’s just a video game.” _Just a video game. Ugh_. You hate when people try to use that on you.

“Lafontaine is right, sweetie. You shouldn’t stress over these things so much. It’s not good for you.” Perry adds, shaking her head disapprovingly.

“You don’t get it, guys.” You sigh. “She could’ve said she was sorry, but she didn’t. She chose to be a major b-bad person about it and now I have to destroy her.” Perry shoots you a worried look. “At Mario Kart, I mean.”

“Whatever you say, L.” Laf says with a sigh.

“At what time should we be there?” Perry asks you.

“Kirsch told me to be there at 7. Laf, can you bring your Wii controllers? Kirsch and I only have two each so we need two more.” Laf looks at you with a puzzled look.

“I’ll bring them, but why six controllers? Who else is gonna be there?” Oh right, you forgot to tell them about Will. Whoever that is.

“Kirsch told me his friend Will is coming as well. I don’t really know who he is though.”

“Oh, Will? He’s Carmilla’s brother.” Laf said like it was universal knowledge.

“Okay, what the hell? How does everyone know who everyone is except me?” This is getting ridiculous. Are you really always this oblivious?

“If you did a little less pining and a little more talking maybe you’d learn a thing or two about Carmilla.”

“OH MY GOD I DO NOT PINE- No. We’re not doing this again.” Laf and Perry start giggling at you again. You’re so done with these two. They know your buttons. They know what makes you frustrated and what makes you embarrassed. And they know very well how to annoy you to death.

You just want to finally get out of here so that this humiliation can stop. You have a feeling your shift is over so you look at the clock on the wall.

“Look at that, it’s 4. Time for me to leave this toxic environment.” You glare at them. “Meet me tomorrow at my place at 7. AND BEHAVE PLEASE.”

Laf answers with _‘I’ll do my best.’_ and a giggle which earns them a death stare from you as you’re making your way to the back of the bakery.

You change back into your grey t-shirt and blue jeans and get out of the bakery with your helmet in hand and a quick goodbye to your friends. You send a text to Kirsch telling him you’ll be there with Laf and Perry and then you unchain your bike and start pedaling home.

Were you really that obvious with your staring? You think you had to be since your friends were talking about it and even making bets. _Ugh._ They’re the worst.

They were right though. You and Carmilla did glance at each other all the time and for a while there you even thought it had become your thing. Like your own little private game. You thought about approaching her so many times. And you almost did a few times, but the nerves always got the best of you.

But the thing is: you didn’t know her. You were enamored by this version of Carmilla you made up in your head. You made her up to be nice and friendly, but what she did to you online showed a whole new side of her.

You can’t deny how sad you were when the image of the perfect Carmilla that you had in your head was shattered. And maybe that’s why you were so pissed at her. You know, besides the terrible betrayal and overall rudeness.

It’s like she took away from you this person that never really existed. In a way, you’re grieving and the way you’re coping with it is through anger.

You also can’t deny how awfully attracted you are to her. The girl is beautiful, there’s no denying that, but that isn’t enough. That doesn’t make everything she’s done any better. She at least needs to apologize.

You’re going to kick her ass tomorrow at Mario Kart, that’s for sure, but an apology is what you really want. She needs to admit that what she did was shitty and completely uncalled for. Maybe then you’ll reconsider trying to coexist.

 

* * *

 

 

Friday rolled around and you’re more than ready to absolutely DESTROY Carmilla at Mario Kart.

You worked the morning shift at the bakery and have been practicing all afternoon on your Wii so you’re super confident in your victory. Not that you really need to practice though. Your highscores are ridiculous.

It’s almost 7 and Laf and Perry have already texted you that they’re on their way, so you quickly get dressed and shove your Wii controllers and the container full of cookies you made at the bakery in your bag. Kirsch would probably sulk all night if you forgot to bring the cookies you promised him.

You try to pet Ellie on your way out, but she hisses and runs away from you, as usual. You lock your door and make your way down the stairs and then outside where Laf and Perry are already sitting on the front steps of your building waiting for you.

“Hey L!” Laf says excitedly when they see you walk out the building door. “Ready to kick some ass?” Perry gives them a disapproving look.

“Lafontaine! Language!” You giggle. She’s always such a mom.

“Hey guys!” You respond and the three of you start walking the short distance to Kirsch’s apartment. “And yes. I’m more than ready to kick some ass!” Lafontaine high-fives you.

Perry looks disappointed at the both of you. “That’s enough you two!” You and Lafontaine laugh loudly. You always find a way to mess with Perry.

When you finally reach Kirsch’s building you send him a text for him to buzz you in.

 **Little Nerd:** we’re here!

 **Big Puppy Kirsch:** the beefcake is in the bathroom. how can i help cupcake? ;)

 _Ugh, Carmilla. Of course._ You’re not even in the same room yet and she’s already messing with you.

 **Little Nerd:** open the freaking door.

You hear the front door buzz open and you make your way inside with your friends. You reach Kirsch’s floor and the door to his apartment is wide open with Carmilla standing in the door frame with a smirk on her lips. You glare at her.

“Hey, creampuff. Missed me?” She says with a wink.

It’s really hard to keep reminding yourself that it’s not okay to think she’s attractive anymore when she’s standing there with a _very_ revealing black lace shirt and black skinny jeans and when she winks and looks at you like that.

“Really?” You glare at her. “I’m not even inside yet and you’re already trying to mess with me? Looks to me like I wasn’t the one missing someone.” Two can play this game.

Her smirk only widens at your response though. “Well, you’re not wrong.” You pause on your way in to look at her. What is that supposed to mean? “I did miss the look on your face when you get all riled up.”

You’re trying to remain indifferent to her teasing, but the blush on your cheeks is betraying you. You hide your face as you swiftly pass by her into the apartment. Lafontaine trails right behind you, throwing a nod and quick hello at Carmilla on their way in.

“Hello, I don’t think we’ve officially met, I’m Lola Perry.” She extends her hand for Carmilla to shake. “I’ve been hearing a lot about you.”

 _Damn it, Perry!_ You quickly look at them with eyes wide open and you’re ready to deny Perry’s allegations when you notice the wicked grin on Carmilla’s face.

“Oh, is that so?” She looks at you and raises an eyebrow. “All good things, I hope. I’m really not that bad. Cupcake over there just refuses to give me another chance.” You can’t help but glare at her.

Your attempts at keeping this hangout peaceful are becoming more difficult and your patience is being seriously tested right now.

“Pfft, you wish!” You need to end this conversation. This is dangerous territory. You don’t trust Laf and Perry not to embarrass you in front of Carmilla. “Are we playing or what? Where’s Kirsch?

Kirsch comes running in the room, holding his unzipped pants so they wouldn’t fall down to his feet. “I’m here! I’m here!”

Perry immediately covers her eyes and turns towards the wall with a shriek. Laf bends over laughing and Carmilla just gives him the biggest eye roll as if to say _‘not this shit again’_.

“Kirsch, what the hell? Couldn’t you have just zipped your pants? Geez!” You scold him, although you’re not surprised at his behavior.

“Xena is not coming, beefcake. You can keep your pants on.” You hear Carmilla say.

Is she talking about Danny? She must be. Right? You’re not sure, but if she is: _what the hell?!_ Danny knows her too? Does anyone NOT know her? Anyone besides you? You make a mental note to figure this out later.

“I heard you guys come in! I didn’t want to be rude and not welcome you in!” Kirsch explained, still fumbling with the zipper of his pants.

“Yes, because showing up with your pants halfway down your legs is great welcoming etiquette.” Carmilla teases him and he finally manages to zip his pants all the way up and button them.

He straightens up and moves towards you and your friends. “What’s up, guys?” He raises his hand, waiting for Lafontaine to high-five him.

“No, thanks. I’m good.” They reply with a chuckle and move towards the living room with a still very flustered Perry trailing behind them.

You give Kirsch a quick hug and ask him where you can drop the cookies you brought for him and he tells you to just leave them on the kitchen counter. When you turn to move to the kitchen you notice the dark haired guy leaning against the counter, the smirk on his face looking oddly familiar. He must be Will, Carmilla’s brother.

God, now that you’re actually looking at it, his smirk and Carmilla’s are so similar, it’s weirding you out.

“Oh, hi there! I’m Laura.” You smile at him and extend your hand for him to shake.

He gently squeezes your hand. “Will.” His smirk somehow gets more pronounced and he looks at Carmilla for a moment. “My sister has said wonders about you.”

You glare at Carmilla and notice her expression with widened eyes in surprise that quickly changes into pure annoyance.

“Shut it, William.” She barks out. “Don’t mind him, cupcake. He’s even more of an asshole than I am.”

“I highly doubt that.” You mumble and roll your eyes.

“You’d be surprised.” You hear Carmilla say as she turns towards the living room area.

You weren’t really expecting her to hear that. You don’t think you wanted her to hear it. It was a little mean and, although you’re still pissed at her, you’re not petty like that. Insulting her gets you nowhere, and you know that. The way to get back at her is to destroy her in Mario Kart, which is what you’re going to do tonight.

You move over to the living room area, where Laf and Perry are already settled on the floor and Kirsch is setting up the Wii and the controllers. You sit down on one end of the couch and Carmilla immediately plops down right next to you with a grin on her face so you glare at her.

You release a heavy sigh but don’t give her the satisfaction of any other reaction. She’s trying to mess with you, to throw you off your game, but it’s not going to work. You came here to win and that’s exactly what you’re going to do.

“Alright, who wants to go first?” Kirsch asks as he finishes setting up the Wii and the main menu of Mario Kart 8 appears on the screen of his television.

You immediately pick up the two controllers Laf brought from the coffee table where they left them earlier, and throw one of them on Carmilla’s lap. You pick your character: Mario, of course. You’ve been playing with Mario ever since you first got your Nintendo 64.

You’re not surprised when Carmilla chooses Wario. She’s so predictable. Will chooses Bowser and Kirsch chooses Donkey Kong. You’ve played Mario Kart with Kirsch a few times before and he always chooses that damn gorilla. You let it pass this time and he automatically selects Rainbow Road as the racing track.

“Rainbow Road? Seriously?” Carmilla huffs next to you.

“What’s wrong? Scared you’re gonna lose?” You taunt her and she narrows her eyes at you.

“Very funny, cupcake. Start the damn game.”

Kirsch hits start and the countdown begins. You readjust the controller in your hands and psych yourself up. _You got this, Hollis!_

The race finally starts and soon enough you are in first place. The game only lets four people play at the same time, so Perry and Laf are cheering for you like proud parents at a kid’s soccer game.

You’re now starting the final lap (still in first place, obviously). Carmilla trailed right behind you the whole time, but you’ve put in an embarrassingly large number of hours of training into Rainbow Road, so there’s no way she can win this. But that’s when you see it…

_She has a blue shell._

With how close she’s trailing behind you, there’s no way you can win if she throws that blue shell at you. You can’t fucking lose! _Not like this!_

You’re getting close to the last turn of the track and you know exactly what Carmilla’s strategy is. You’re losing all hope as she’s right behind you with Will right on her tail as well. There’s no way to avoid that goddamn shell. God, you do hate this game some times.

You hear Carmilla release the blue shell and you brace for impact. Soon enough you’re hit and immobilized by it. Carmilla and Will race past you and all hope of winning this has gone out the window. But then something miraculous happens.

You cannot believe you’re seeing this with your own two eyes. It’s the last turn and Will has hit Carmilla on the side and dragged them both off the track, buying you a couple of precious extra seconds before their characters get revived.

“Will, you fucking idiot!” Carmilla yells at him. “I was gonna win this!”

You fumble with your controller and focus back on the game. Your character is still recuperating from the blue shell, but there’s still a chance you can win this. You speed past Carmilla and Will’s characters that are still blinking from being revived and slowly gaining speed again.

There’s no more turns and there’s a straight path in front of you to the finish line. Will is right on your tail with Carmilla on his left bumping her cart with his, so you release a banana peel in the hopes to slow down at least one of them. The trick works on Will so now Carmilla is right behind you, but rapidly gaining ground.

You swear everything starts going in slow motion when you notice Carmilla roll up beside you, the front of her kart almost in front of yours, but you cross the finish line before she can get in first place and you feel a huge wave of relief leave your body. She crosses the finish line not even a second later and Will and Kirsch soon follow.

“Holly Hufflepuff! I WON! YES!” You shout, throwing your arms high in the air and smiling widely.

Not that you were counting on not winning, but it was touch-and-go there for a bit. You have to admit you genuinely didn’t think you could win after that blue shell. You make a mental note to thank Will for that later.

“Remind me to never play with this idiot ever again.” Carmilla says, glaring at Will.

“Come on sis, don’t be such a sore loser.” Will teases with a smirk. “Laura won fair and square.”

“I had a blue shell, you dimwit. I was gonna win.”

“You said it yourself, it’s just a game.” You say teasingly, a big victorious grin on your face the whole time.

“Exactly. A game for children, by the way.” Carmilla says grumpily, getting up from the couch and moving to the kitchen area.

Kirsch starts another game so you offer your controller and Carmilla’s to Laf and Perry so they can play this time. You get up from the couch and follow Carmilla to the kitchen. You have bragging rights, so might as well take advantage of that.

You open the fridge and grab a beer. You pop the cap off, take a sip and turn to Carmilla who’s leaning against the counter and sipping from her own beer. She’s ignoring your presence so you can’t resist to tease her about what she said earlier. “So, what you’re saying is that I beat you at a children’s game?” She offers you a glare for a moment before she rolls her eyes.

“It’s not about that. It’s about it being a simple, unfair game. There’s next to no skill to it, just luck, cupcake. It all comes down to whoever gets the best power ups.”

You hate to admit it but she’s not entirely wrong. That game is indeed mainly about luck, but even if you get the best power ups, you still have to know how to use them right. You have to think strategically as to not waste power ups left and right because you can’t control your impulse to just release them as soon as you get them.

“It is largely about luck, yes, but I think there’s more to it than just that. But I get what you’re saying.” Carmilla looks at you with an unreadable expression that turns into a questioning look. “What?” You ask, confused and slightly worried.

“Nothing, it’s just that… I wasn’t expecting you to agree with me so… easily, I guess.” You roll your eyes.

“It’s extremely painful to say this, trust me, but you’re not wrong.” You say genuinely and Carmilla smiles at you. “I still beat you though, so…” You look at her provokingly while you take another sip from your beer.

She snorts and throws the beer cap that was sitting on the counter next to her in your direction, hitting you in the chest. “And you say _I’m_ the annoying one.” You chuckle.

“Do you really think you could beat me at a more complex game then? Because I doubt it.”

“I already have, cupcake. Do you need me to remind you of what happened?” She says with a smirk and you narrow your eyes at her as the memory rolls back into your mind.

“You did not beat me. You shot me in the back and betrayed me.” She scoffs. “Two VERY different things.”

She sets her beer down on the counter behind her and takes a step towards you. “Whatever you say, sweetheart.”

“I could totally beat you at Call of Duty though.” You add, because you totally could. You played First Person Shooters all the time when you were in high-school, much to your father’s disapproval.

She chuckles. “You really think you could?” She takes another step towards you, getting dangerously closer to entering your space. “That’s cute.” She adds and looks intensely into your eyes.

She keeps moving slowly towards you and suddenly you’re very aware of her proximity. You try to take a step back on instinct but the kitchen counter presses deeper into your lower back and for some reason you’re not sad it’s stopping you from getting away from her. You’re surprised to find that right now that’s the last thing you want to do. You want her close to you.

“I know I could.” Your voice falters and she seems to notice because she cocks her head to the side and her smirk turns impossibly more seductive.

She takes another step in your direction and now she’s definitely in your space. You’re not really sure where this is going, but you’re not afraid to find out.

“We need to settle that. Don’t we, cutie?” She places her hands either side of you on the counter and you slowly nod in agreement, never breaking eye contact with her.

You suddenly hear someone clear their throat behind you both and Carmilla quickly lowers her arms and looks at the origin of the offending sound. Will apparently had gotten up from the couch and is now standing at the entrance of the kitchen, looking at the both of you with a wicked grin. You can’t help but look down to hide your blushing face.

“Careful, Laura. She bites.” He says, smirking at Carmilla.

“Oh shut up, William!” Carmilla barks out and storms past him towards the couch.

Will snorts and returns to the couch as well, leaving you all alone in the kitchen with your racing thoughts.

You’re trying to make sense of what just happened. One moment you were bragging about your victory and the next thing you know she was in your space and pinning you against the kitchen counter and you can’t say you really minded it because your body certainly didn’t seem to. _God, why is it so hot in this kitchen all of a sudden?_ Hell, you even cursed internally when Will interrupted you. _What the hell, Hollis?! Why can’t you ever resist a pretty face goddammit? And a perfect body… And a nice bu-NO. Bad Hollis!_ These kinds of thoughts are doing you no good.

The thing is: you could’ve backed out and left at any moment but… you didn’t. You didn’t really want to. God, in that moment all you really wanted was for her to be as close to you as possible.

 _Okay, what the hell is going on?_ You don’t understand where this is all coming from. Or why all of this happened. You just know that you’re very… flustered at the moment. You need to calm down.

Are you still _that_ attracted to Carmilla? Sure, you did flirt a bit in the video game store. You think Carmilla even kind of asked you out. But this was all before you knew who you were really talking to. But you can’t deny that Carmilla is very beautiful. And incredibly annoying.

You finish your beer with large gulps against the kitchen counter as you try to recompose yourself. You later join your friends on the couch when you’re feeling more… capable.

 

* * *

 

 

The night is going well. Kirsch and Will somehow managed to start playing FIFA at some point after the Mario Kart rematch, when you, Laura and the ginger twins were distracted with the pizzas Will ordered. The ginger twins left soon after, the curly one saying they had to get up early for brunch with her mom or something. You don’t really care. But they are nice though.

You’re having a good time. You really are. You were doubting how on earth this gathering could possibly be enjoyable, considering the fact that it involved people you’re not familiar with, one of them being Laura, who you still think hates you. Although you two had that… interesting interaction earlier in the kitchen.

You’re not really sure what happened there, but Laura somehow didn’t push you away so you’re not too worried you crossed some sort of line or something. You would’ve immediately stopped if she asked you to back off of course. Deep down you’re a decent human being. But she didn’t stop you. You can’t be the only one to have felt the tension. God, you could’ve probably cut it with a god dammed knife.

Of course, Will had to interrupt in the worst possible moment. You don’t really know what you were going to do next. You didn’t exactly have a plan. Maybe it was good that he interrupted you. He might have stopped you from doing something stupid. Yeah… maybe it was for the best. You’re still pissed at him though.

You shake your head and focus back on your surroundings. _Right, FIFA._ You sigh. You were never a big fan of sports games and you could care less about soccer, but Kirsch was being annoying so you had no other choice, otherwise he wouldn’t have stopped nagging you.

You’re sitting on the couch and so is Laura, but this time there’s more space between you. You can still feel the tension and you wonder if she can too.

She’s scrolling through the vast menu of team options and then she turns to you. “What team should we be?” She asks you.

Kirsch also somehow convinced you to team up with Laura against him and Will.

“Do I look like I care enough about soccer to know any team names?” You answer with a bored tone and Laura rolls her eyes and turns back to the tv screen.

“Real Madrid it is then!” Laura says with a loud sigh. You notice that team has five starts so you figure it must be good. Whatever.

When Kirsch is finally done making what seem to be meaningless adjustments to his team’s formation, the game starts. It takes a while for you to get used to the controls. By now you know how to pass, shoot, sprint and tackle. That’s probably enough, right? Whatever, it will do.

It’s also taking a while to get used to the fact that you’re not playing solo. You have to keep reminding yourself that Laura is indeed on your team because you keep confusing yourself every time you pass the ball and you don’t have control of the player that catches it anymore. This means you and Laura have to be in sync and communicate. So yeah, it’s not going very well.

You two are losing. Big time! Kirsch and Will have scored four times already. Well… technically three. Laura managed to score a glorious goal earlier, but turns out it was on the wrong side of the field. You can’t be mad at her because your strategy isn’t any better. After you found out the endless fun that tackling can be, you haven’t stopped sliding around trying to tackle everyone that stands in your way.

Five yellow cards and two red cards later, which means your team now only has nine players, you think it’s better to stop tackling. Judging by the look Laura gives you every time you commit a foul, she’s not a big fan of your strategy.

“Carmilla, if you get us another red card, I swear to god!” Laura warns you.

“I didn’t score in my own goal, so I’d say I’m doing just fine cupcake, thank you very much.” She huffs loudly at your teasing.

“Ugh, whatever. You’re so annoying.” She groans.

The game went on and soon enough Will scored another goal.

“Would it hurt you to pass the freaking ball?” You hear Laura ask, annoyed at your lack of team work.

“I’m not really used to playing with others.” You answer.

“Okay, but I’m actually on your team and I’m trying to help, so pass the freaking ball goddammit!” You roll your eyes. She’s _way_ too invested in this stupid game.

“Ugh fine, creampuff. Just make sure you’re actually facing the right way this time.” You can’t help but tease her, she makes it too easy.

“Shut up.” You snort.

You finally pass the ball and Laura finds a weakness in the other team’s defense and takes advantage of it, sprinting up the field. You make sure she’s going the right way because you’re pretty sure you’re going to punch Kirsch in the face if he informs you two about how bad you are at this game one more time.

Laura now has a defender in her way and the only way to get past him is if she passes the ball. To you. You hear her take a deep breath and push what must be the X button on her controller to pass the ball because now you’re the one with the ball and oh god this is going way too fast!

“Come on, Carmilla!” Laura shouts next to you, not at all helping with the pressure you’re feeling right now. “SHOOT THE BALL!”

You fumble with your controller as you get closer and closer to your objective. The goalkeeper starts advancing towards you, so you aim your left stick and press the circle button to strike before he has a chance to stop you. The ball goes flying past him and hits the back of the net with force.

“Oh my god!” You’re not sure what just happened, but it was great. “We scored!” You look at Laura and raise your hands in the air in victory. “We actually scored!”

“HECK YEAH!” Laura suddenly jumps from the couch and high fives you with both hands and then proceeds to kick the air in front of her. “TEAM WORK!”

“You guys realize we’re still winning by four, right?” You glare at Will.

“Shut it, William! Don’t be a party pooper.”

 

* * *

 

 

The game eventually came to an end and although you and Carmilla didn’t score any more goals, you still had a great time. By the end you and Carmilla had learned how to play better as a team and actually made a few good plays.

You’re surprised how much your view of Carmilla has changed from just hanging out with her for a few hours. Sure, winning Mario Kart and getting your revenge helped a lot in softening the anger you felt towards her. But still, you had fun with her today, and she showed you a different side that’s not all mean and rude. You actually find her very funny and intelligent.

Maybe your friends are right. Maybe she’s not all bad. Kirsch is friends with her so she can’t be that bad, right? You think you’re ready to give her another chance.

You’re getting ready to leave when Kirsch stops you.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to walk you home?”

“I’ll be fine Kirsch, I basically live around the corner anyway.”

Carmilla sticks her head out of the kitchen. “Oh really? Where?” You can’t deny you’re a bit… confused by her sudden interruption.

“Um… Littleoak Street.” You tell her hesitantly. “Why?”

“Oh, I can walk with you then! I live right on the next street.” Your expression turns to a surprised one and hers turns shy and hesitant. “Uuhhh… I mean… if you don’t mind, of course.”

You’re a little taken back by the thought of walking home with her. It’s not that you don’t want to, you just weren’t expecting this to happen. Now you’re actually looking forward to it. Although when you really think about it, this means that you two will be alone for about 15 minutes or so, and the thought of that is making you nervous. God, you always overthink things.

“Um… Sure. I-I don’t mind.” You see a hint of relief on Carmilla’s face so you smile shyly at her, which she returns with a smile of her own.

“Alright then, we should… um… we should get going then.” She chuckles nervously and walks to the apartment door with her eyes fixated on the floor beneath her.

You give Kirsch a quick hug and say your goodbyes to him before you turn to Will who’s leaning against the kitchen counter.

“Bye Will, it was nice to meet you!” You wave at him and he returns with a little bow of his head.

“You too, Laura.” He turns to Carmilla. “Bye sis. Play nice.” He says with a wink and Carmilla flips him off.

You move to the apartment door Carmilla’s holding open for you and you get out to the hallway with a shy _‘thank_ you’. She shouts _‘see ya later, losers’_ into the apartment and closes the door behind her.

You walk side-by-side down the stairs and out onto the cold street. You snuggle deeper into your jacket, trying to keep warm, and you look over at Carmilla who’s only wearing a black leather jacket that’s definitely not warm enough for this weather. You notice she’s shivering so you immediately feel the need to help her.

“Here.” You untangle the scarf around your neck and wave it in Carmilla’s face. “As cool as you look in your leather jacket, I can see that you’re freezing.”

“Oh, thanks cutie.” Carmilla takes the scarf from your hands and drapes it around her neck. “Wait a second. Did you just say I look cool?” She smirks at you.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You respond jokingly, unable to hide your smile that Carmilla soon returns.

You keep walking in silence for a while. It’s a comfortable silence though. It’s not like those awkward silences where all you want to do is run away as fast as possible. You feel weirdly comfortable walking in silence with her even though she was essentially just a stranger a few days ago. But you think you’re past that first barrier. You think you can at least call you two acquaintances by now. But you wouldn’t mind more than that. She showed a different side today. A side you can’t wait to explore and get to know better.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Carmilla suddenly asks, pulling you from your thoughts, and you nod for her to continue. “Do you still hate me?”

You open your mouth, surprised by her question. You look over at her and the look in her eyes seems sincere and serious. In all honesty, you were expecting her to be teasing you like she always does, but she’s being serious.

You look away from her and look at the street in front of you, thinking about her question. You don’t hate her. You never really did. Hate’s a strong word and you don’t enjoy the fact that you made her think that you actually hated her. You just felt angry and betrayed. You didn’t mean for that to translate to hatred in her eyes.

“I never hated you.” You say sincerely while you look into her eyes to assure her that you’re being serious.

Carmilla looks at the floor. “It sure seemed like you did.” She mumbles.

“I was very angry, yes, but I never hated you.” You pause, thinking about what you want to say next. “It’s just… I don’t know… I guess I wasn’t having a great day and you certainly didn’t help with the whole shooting me in the back thing.” Carmilla looks guiltily at the floor. “But it’s okay. I can see now that I might have overreacted a little bit and taken it all out on you. So… I’m sorry I was rude to you.” It’s your turn now to look shyly at the floor in front of you.

“No. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make your day any worse than it already was. What I did was really shitty, I recognize that now.” You raise your head and look into her apologetic eyes. “I wasn’t having the best day either so I took it out on a stranger online. I’m sorry you had to be that stranger.”

You offer her a smile in understanding. “It’s okay. Just don’t do it again.” You say jokingly and she chuckles.

“I’ll try my hardest, but I can’t make any promises cutie.” She says with a wink that always gets you flustered.

You finally reach your building and you take your place on the first step of your building’s entrance, slightly towering over Carmilla who’s now standing in front of you, at street level.

“Thanks for walking with me.” You offer her a grateful smile.

“Anytime, cutie.” Carmilla’s lips slowly turn into a smirk. “Besides, what kind of gentlewoman would I be if I didn’t walk the cute girl home at the end of the day?”

You snort but you can already feel the blush rising to your cheeks. “You’re the kind of gentlewoman who shoots cute girls that help her in the back.” You tease her with a playful smile.

“Ouch.” She says with a chuckle and takes the scarf from around her neck. “Here. Wouldn’t want to be the gentlewoman that steals from cute girls too.”

You never knew it was possible to blush this much. “It’s alright. You can keep it for now. You need it more than I do.”

You grab the scarf from her hands and wrap it around her neck. When you’re done fixing it you move your hands to her shoulders and lock eyes with her. It’s fairly dark outside, but from this angle you can still see the intensity and life in her dark brown eyes. You continue analyzing the rest of her features. The little crinkle between her eyebrows. Her pink cheeks. Her pink lips that are slowly turning into a smirk and you finally understand why: you’re staring.

You drop your hands from her shoulders to your sides, deciding to put some distance between you two, and you look down at the ground with an embarrassed expression.

“Um… I had a great time. It was fun playing with you.” You say, trying to defuse the tension.

“Yeah, I had a lot of fun too.” She smiles at you. “And don’t think I forgot about your little challenge.” You cock your head to the side, not remembering what she’s talking about. You’re admittedly still a bit winded by what happened just moments ago. By this whole day, actually. “Call of Duty?”

“Oh, right!” You scoff. “Yeah, I can totally beat you at Call of Duty.”

“It’s still very cute that you think that.” You roll your eyes and chuckle.

“I’ll show you someday.” You don’t know where all this confidence is coming from, but you’re not complaining.

“Can’t wait, sweetheart.” She smiles shyly at you and then averts her gaze to the floor. “I-um… I should go.” She points towards the street behind her with a pout.

She seems to be having a silent battle with her thoughts but then she suddenly lunges forward and plants a quick kiss to your left cheek. You suck in a breath and your eyebrows shoot to your hairline in surprise. You were _not_ expecting that and before you can even fully register what just happened, she turns around and starts walking away from you.

Your eyes inadvertently fall to her legs and ass and after a few seconds your mind and body finally catch up to reality and you call after her, not really sure why, but you can’t stop yourself. Maybe you’re just not ready to say goodbye yet.

“Wai-Wait!” You shout, sounding embarrassingly eager. She turns to you and her intense gaze only serves to amplify your nerves. “You should-um…” You’re stuttering. You didn’t really have a plan when you called out for her. “You should text me when you get home. You know… So I know you’re not dead in some random alleyway or something… heh…” _Nailed it, Hollis. Real suave._

She looks at you with an unreadable expression and then lets out a giggle. “Cupcake, if you really wanted my number you only had to ask.” She ends with a smirk and moves to stand in front of you again.

You glare at her, blushing intensely. “Shut up and put your number in my phone.” You retrieve your phone from your jacket pocket and bring it forward for her to grab. You’re trying to hide how flustered you are, but you have a feeling that you’re failing miserably.

“Oh, so bossy.” She smirks and reaches for your phone. “I already warned you that I might like that.” She winks and woah, you could swear it was a lot colder outside like, a minute ago.

“Hilarious.” You say with the best glare you can muster, considering how flustered you actually feel.

Carmilla hands you back your phone with her number already saved in and you give her a call so she can save your number in her own phone. You shove the phone back in your pocket and look at her again.

“I’ll let you leave now, I promise I won’t stop you again.” You joke and she chuckles. “Have a good night, Carmilla.” You give her a smile that she immediately returns. “And don’t forget to text me, please.”

“Is that an invitation for me to text you whenever I want?” She’s teasing you so you roll your eyes with a smile playing at your lips.

“Don’t make me have to block your number.” You joke.

She giggles and god, why do you always get this longing to hear it again as soon as it’s over? _Focus, Laura._ “I won’t, don’t worry. Goodnight, Laura.” So apparently she is indeed physically capable of pronouncing your _actual_ name. Good to know.

You stand there for a moment looking at her as she walks away, but she suddenly looks back and smirks when she notices that you’ve been staring. You quickly look away and move inside your building, making your way up to your apartment.

When you’re finally inside you throw your jacket on your couch and move to the bedroom. You’re taking off your clothes and putting on your sweatpants and oversized hoodie when you hear your phone buzz on your bed, under the pile of clothes you just discarded. You dig it out and notice a text notification. You roll your eyes and sigh loudly. Judging by the ridiculous contact name, it must be Carmilla.

 **Cool Leather Jacket Girl:** honey i’m home!!!

 **Cupcake:** hilarious contact name btw

 **Cool Leather Jacket Girl:** you’re the one who said it cupcake, not me ;)

 **Cupcake:** yeah, you’re definitely the annoying one.

 **Cool Leather Jacket Girl:** you wound me :(

 **Cupcake:** i think you’ll live. have a good night carmilla

 **Cool Leather Jacket Girl:** you too cutie

You set your phone down on your bedside table with a smile on your face and move towards the bathroom to get ready for bed.

When you return to your room Ellie is laying on your bed, seemingly unaware of your presence. You slowly approach the bed, trying not to disturb her, but you’re already expecting her to run away as soon as she notices you laying down. You manage to pull down the covers and get in the bed without her moving though, so you figure she must be having one of those rare moments where she lets you pet her.

You carefully and slowly scratch between her ears and she hisses lazily at first, but doesn’t move away or scratch your hand so you continue your movements. She looks tired, so that’s probably why she’s not fighting what’s happening right now.

You pull your laptop on top of your legs and open up Netflix. Nothing like catching up on Orphan Black to end your day on a positive note, right?

You soon find yourself not paying attention to the screen in front of you, and it’s not that Cosima or Helena aren’t interesting (that’s definitely not the reason why you’re distracted), but you can’t stop thinking about everything that happened today.

The rematch went well, but definitely not how you expected it to go. You won at Mario Kart and that’s about the only thing that happened that you were already expecting to happen. Everything else that happened from there was… a pleasant surprise.

From what happened in the kitchen (which you’re still not entirely sure how or why that happened, but you’re not complaining) to Carmilla walking home with you, it was all-in-all a good day.

This is all becoming a mess in your head though. She was supposed to be this horrible person that you can’t stand, but today she showed the complete opposite. It was easy not liking her and thinking she was rude and mean, but she’s not. She’s still incredibly annoying when she wants to be, but she’s also sweet and funny and interesting. And she left you wanting to explore the real Carmilla and wanting to get to know her better.

And you’re ready.

You’re ready to let her in and to give her another chance at making a first impression.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading, i hope you enjoyed it.  
> leave a comment and let me know what you liked and what you didn't like. also, pointing out any mistakes you might have found is greatly appreciated by me. it only helps me get better :)  
> the song 'Something Good' by alt-j is a LIS reference (and they're also one of my faves so I recommend giving them a listen)  
> Also, if you never played co-op FIFA, i highly recommend it. it can be frustratingly hilarious. (and also if there are any mario kart inaccuracies in this, i apologize, i dont actually own the game)  
> i'll shut up now, im sorry
> 
> you can find me on tumblr at frillyhella :)


	3. Grenades & Extraterrestrials

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> friendships are formed and feelings are questioned and video games are played and tears are shed.  
> there's a lot going on in this chapter.  
> expect more silly shenanigans and gross pining.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long, life kind of got in the way. i'll try not to take so long to post the next chapter.  
> anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter! had a lot of fun writing it

 

It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and you’re sitting at your desk playing Stardew Valley on your computer. You can just imagine the look on your father’s face if he knew about your (super healthy) habits. He knows you love video games, but does he know how much time you actually spend playing them? Certainly not, and it’s probably for the best that he doesn’t find out.

You worked all morning and you couldn’t wait for your shift to end so you could come home and go back to working on your farm and wooing the Pelican Town locals. In all honesty, when you first heard of the game, you didn’t think much of it. You don’t play a lot of RPG’s and the whole country-life aspect of it just seemed silly. Needless to say you were hooked in less than 20 minutes of gameplay.

The game is just so heartwarming and there’s so much stuff to do. It’s hard not to fall in love with it.

So yeah… now it’s almost 5pm which means you’ve been playing for over 2 hours now. You’re just going to explore one more level in the cave and then you’ll take a break…

15 minutes later and you’re still fighting your way through a handful of slimes. So much for that break… You’re suddenly pulled back to reality by the loud chime of your phone next to you. You kill the last of the slimes and pause the game, sighing loudly as you reach for the phone. There’s two new text messages.

 **Carmilla:** hey cupcake

 **Carmilla:** didn’t forget about our little rematch, did you?

You’re confused at first, but then the memory of the conversation you had in her kitchen last Friday pops into your head; you challenged her for a Call of Duty duel. _God,_ what were you thinking? You are so going to get your ass kicked! She totally looks like a _First Person Shooter_ kind of gamer and you’re just… average at it. (And also, yeah… you changed her contact name. The previous one was just ridiculous. Plus, you like her name. It’s pretty.)

 **Cupcake:** you wish.

You wait patiently for her response as you see her typing.

 **Carmilla:** good, i was starting to think you were scared…

Well… Okay, you’re not scared. You’re just… not confident at all that you can win. But she doesn’t need to know that

 **Cupcake:** hilarious. are u free tomorrow at 7?

You have work tomorrow but your shift ends at 6 and Tuesday is your day off so it’s fine if you stay up late playing video games with Carmilla. Not that you’re planning on staying up super late with her or whatever…

 **Carmilla:** sure. at your place?

 **Cupcake:** yeah, if its cool with u

She already knows where you live so it’s only logical and practical that she comes over, right? It’s not like she lives on the other side of town anyway. Hell, you’re pretty much neighbors. All in all you just want to make sure it’s not awkward and that she feels comfortable or whatever. She’s the one that first suggested your place so she’s probably fine with it anyway. _God,_ you always overthink everything…

 **Carmilla:** its fine. enjoy the home turf advantage, you’re gonna need it

 _Ah, as if!_ Is she really already trash talking? This girl is unbelievable.

 **Cupcake:** im seriously regretting inviting you into my home.

 **Carmilla:** see you tomorrow cupcake ;)

You snort and set your phone back down on the desk. You figure this was probably enough of a break, so you turn back to your computer and un-pause the game, getting immediately blindsided by a green slime you apparently forgot to kill when you paused the game earlier.

You play for the rest of the afternoon. The sun was already setting when you shut down your computer, and now you’re eating take out in front of your tv, catching up on The Walking Dead.

After that brief conversation with Carmilla over text message, you caught yourself getting distracted several times while you played. It got to the point where you even forgot to water your crops one time, and by the end of the day you had no energy left to do so, which pretty much set back your whole game plan.

You don’t even know why you can’t stop thinking about it or why you even feel a bit… nervous. It’s just Carmilla and you’re just playing video games. That’s literally all that’s going to happen.

You always manage to overthink everything, like for example: right now you’re thinking about the mess that is your apartment and that you’re definitely going to have to tidy up a bit before she arrives tomorrow or else you’re going to leave a bad impression and oh my god, why the hell do you care so much?

You don’t tidy up when Laf and Perry come over. (Normally Perry just does it for you and she seems happy to do it so you let her. You’re honestly scared to find out what would happen if you didn’t let her clean.)

Hell, you don’t even tidy up when your dad comes over. Granted, he mostly shows up unannounced, but still. Other than picking up the eventual article of clothing from the floor or transferring to the kitchen sink the dirty mugs you hoard on your coffee table and desk, you don’t do much else. You’re not really a messy person so that leaves you with very little to clean in general, which _thank god!_

But now, cleaning up this place and making it nice for Carmilla has suddenly become priority number one in your brain. And you don’t understand why you care so much. Why it’s so important to leave her with a good impression of you.

You decided at the end of last Friday night, after she apologized and after you realized that she is a different person from what she showed you online, that you are ready to give her another chance. Maybe that’s why you’re nervous and overthinking everything. You really want this to work and you want to build a… friendship or whatever with her, but maybe you’re scared to be disappointed. Maybe you’re scared she doesn’t want the same thing at all.

You shake your head and focus back on the tv. In a turn of events absolutely no one was expecting, a walker just sneaked up on someone and almost bit them. How exciting.

You push all thoughts about Carmilla to the back of your mind and decide to dwell on everything later. You’ll have plenty of time to overthink things when Rick Grimes is done with murdering every new group of survivors he comes across.

And you’ll also have plenty of time to vacuum a bit and whatnot…

 

* * *

 

You look in the mirror for what feels like the hundredth time since you started getting ready to go to Laura’s place. You’re starting to feel ridiculous because since when do you care so much? Sure, you like to dress well and you like to feel and look good, but you usually never care if other people think you look good too.

You keep having to remind yourself, as a means to try and calm down and relax, that Laura’s just a girl and that it’s absurd that you’re this concerned about what she thinks of you. But in the end Laura’s not _just_ a girl. Laura’s not _just_ another one of your conquests or whatever. You don’t see her that way at least. She’s different.

With everything that happened last Friday, you’re pretty confident that she has somewhat forgiven you for the whole DayZ disaster and you want to make it up to her. You want to show her that you’re not some angry evil that goes online just to terrorize other players. Well, technically you are generally angry at the world most of the time and you do terrorize other players online, but there’s more to you than just that. And you want to show her that.

You sigh in defeat and step away from the mirror, finally accepting that you care what she thinks of you and that you want her to like you. You grab the beers from the kitchen counter and your keys and exit your apartment, locking up the door behind you.

After a short five minute walk, you’re standing in front of Laura’s building taking deep breaths and reminding yourself that there’s no reason to be this nervous and that you’re being absolutely ridiculous.

 **Carmilla:** im outside

You can feel yourself calming down and relaxing as you wait for her to text you back.

 **Laura:** apt 307. building door is open.

You take one last deep breath and make your way through the buildings heavy door. You sigh loudly when you notice that there’s no elevator and you make your way up the stairs, frustrated with the unnecessary and unwelcomed physical exertion that no one warned you about.

You finally reach the third floor, breathing heavily and in need to sit down on a couch with a beer in hand. You’re honestly not even ashamed of how unfit you are. (Okay, maybe just a little bit…)

You spot the door with the big gold _307_ numbers and you knock on it. You still haven’t recovered from that three floor hike and your breathing is still a bit erratic, but when Laura opens the door and you get a good look at her, it gets significantly harder to breathe.

She’s wearing a dark green tank top that hugs her in all the right places, jeans rolled up to her ankles and she’s barefoot. Her light brown hair is up in a messy bun that looks amazing on her because it only helps highlight the facial features that would otherwise be covered by her hair. And it also helps to remind you once again of how beautiful this girl is.

You thankfully manage to pull your shit together before staring for too long and you make your way past her into the apartment.

“If I had known there would be no elevator I would’ve moved this little party elsewhere.” You say, controlling your voice in the hopes that you can sound disaffected and relaxed.

“Um… By all means, come in.” She says as she shuts the door closed and follows you deeper inside the apartment.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I just really need to sit down.” You set the beers down on the coffee table and flop down on the couch, relaxing against the soft pillows and releasing a content sigh. “I brought beer by the way. I hope that’s okay.” You look at Laura and watch as her expression changes to one of surprise.

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that. But thanks! I ordered a pizza, it must be almost here.” She smiles at you and you offer her a smile in return as she reaches for the beers. “Want one?” She offers.

“Yes please!” You eagerly respond and she just snorts and moves to the kitchen with two beers in hand. “So, what are we playing?” You ask when she comes back from the kitchen with both of the beers uncapped.

“I was thinking Call of Duty to start things off.” She hands you one of the beers and sits down on the couch next to you. “Since you’re so sure you can beat me at it.” You watch as a smirk appears on her face. “Which is hilarious by the way.”

“Wow cupcake, trash talking already?” You’re trying to give her a challenging look, but you get a bit distracted when you notice a stain of what you think may be flour on her left cheek. “Um… you have something on your cheek.” You say as you point at your own cheek, trying to let her know the exact spot where the stain is.

Her eyes widen and she quickly tries to rub it off with the palm of her hand, but misses it completely. “Is it gone?”

“Not quite.” You chuckle. “Can I?” Laura nods so you cup her cheek with your right hand and rub your thumb over the stain.

You start analyzing her features and when you reach her eyes they’re staring back at you. You lose yourself in the warmth and wonder in her hazel brown eyes for what feels like an eternity but was probably only a few seconds. Laura averts her gaze to her lap and you notice a blush forming on her cheeks so you decide to drop your hands from her face and put some much needed distance between the both of you.

“Were you baking or something” You ask, trying to defuse the tension.

“Um…” She seems embarrassed. You don’t really know why, but you hope you haven’t fucked this up somehow. Whatever this is, anyway. “I-I was, yes. I’m a baker.” She mumbles the last part, making it hard for you to understand her.

“I’m sorry, what?”

She releases a loud sigh and rolls her eyes. “I’m a baker.” She says more firmly.

You must have missed something. You don’t understand why she looks this embarrassed to say that she’s a baker. You think it's a cool job and that she has nothing to be embarrassed about. Does she think it’s not respectable or something? You work in a goddamn video game store and she knows it, why does she think you’d judge her for being a baker? This is honestly why you usually don’t make an effort to socialize more. People always complicate simple things.

But suddenly it clicks.

_She’s a baker._

“Oh my god.” You say with a smirk playing at your lips and she just narrows her eyes at you.

“Shut up.”

“This is hilarious.” You say, trying to hold back a laugh but failing miserably. “Are you telling me that the cupcake bakes cupcakes for a living?” You can’t help but tease her about this. It’s too perfect.

“I hate you.” You laugh even more and she glares at you. “Are you done? Don’t make me have to throw you out.”

You release a final laugh and take a deep breath. “I’ll stop now. I’m sorry, cupcake.” You finish with a wink.

“You’re insufferable.” She gets up from the couch and reaches for the PlayStation that’s sitting next to her tv, presumably to set up the game.

“So, how long have you been a baker?” She narrows her eyes at you. “I’m not making fun of you this time, I promise.” You assure her.

She rolls her eyes but still turns to look at you. “Since I moved here three years ago.”

She moves back to the couch and throws a controller on your lap. You’re about to ask her where she’s originally from when you hear a noise coming from the kitchen. You turn your head, searching for the origin of the sound, and you spot a ginger cat gracefully jumping down from the kitchen counter to the floor and slowly making it’s way to the living room area.

“You didn’t tell me you had a cat.” Laura immediately looks at you with a worried expression.

“Are you allergic? Oh my god. You are allergic, aren’t you?” Before you can even respond, words are stumbling out of her mouth again. “I’m so sorry I didn’t warn you! I can move her to the bedroom, if that helps. I mean, there’s literally cat hair everywhere so that’s probably pointless. Sorry about that, by the way. I worked all day and I haven’t had much time to clean and-“

“Cupcake, I’m not allergic! Calm down!” You say as you take hold of Laura’s flailing hands and effectively shut her up. “You love to ramble, don’t you?” Laura releases a giggle and looks down at her lap. “I actually love cats.” You say, mostly to reassure her. But it’s true, you do love cats.

“You do?” She looks surprised and you nod in confirmation. “Well, Ellie’s a bit of an asshole so don’t be offended if she doesn’t love you back.”

“Ellie?” Laura nods and you think about the name for a moment, finally realizing why it sounds so familiar. You shake your head and release a sigh. “Please tell me that’s not a _The Last of Us_ reference.”

“It is, actually.” Laura says proudly.

“Nerd.”

“Takes one to know one.” She says and pokes your arm to tease you.

You narrow your eyes at her. “Just start the game, cutie.”

Laura giggles and _god_ , you love it when she does that. She starts navigating the game’s menus, setting up the game. You’re definitely not worried about losing. You’ve been playing _Shooter_ games for years. You used to compete in _Counter-Strike_ for god’s sake. Granted, it’s not at all the same thing as _Call of Duty_ , but still. And playing with a mouse and keyboard is also not at all like playing with a controller, but you’re comfortable with both methods.

Laura finally starts the game after setting up her gun classes for what felt like a century. You glared at her the whole time, obviously. As the game is loading you feel something rubbing against your legs and you look down to find that it’s Ellie running her body against your shin. You decide to scratch between her ears, earning a content purr in return.

You look at Laura and she’s observing your interaction with Ellie with raised eyebrows, wide eyes and mouth slightly agape.

“What?” You ask, quite confused and slightly scared by the look she’s giving you.

She quickly closes her mouth and looks back at the screen in front of her. “Nothing. It’s just that… she normally takes a while to warm up to strangers.” She pauses for a second. “I’m just surprised.”

“She probably senses how cool I am.” Laura side-eyes you. “I don’t blame her. I’m pretty cool.” You say, throwing a wink at Laura that earns you an eye roll.

“Full of yourself much?” She scoffs. “She’s probably just confused… or something.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, sweetheart.” You look down at Ellie and she now has her tail tangled around your leg. “You’re just jealous because she likes me more than she likes you. You should take some pointers from your cat.” You wiggle your eyebrows when she looks at you and you think you notice a slight blush rise to her cheeks.

“Ugh, I hate you.” She says and her lips form into a small smile that she tries to hide, but you notice it anyway. It makes you smile too.

The game finally starts and you’re immediately off and running to capture the first flag for your team.

After a few minutes of intense shooting and flag defense, Ellie jumps up on the couch between you and Laura. You feel Ellie pawing at your right arm so you look at the ginger cat for a moment but you quickly focus back on the screen when your controller starts vibrating. Not even a minute later Ellie is jumping on your lap, positioning herself between your torso and the controller in your hands.

You can see Laura from the corner of your eye immediately turn her head to look at you when Ellie jumped on your lap. You grin in victory when you hear a huff and she turns back to the tv. You don’t understand why she said Ellie was an asshole. She’s pawing at your shirt and rubbing her head on your belly. This is literally one of the sweetest cats you’ve ever met.

Things start going sideways when she turns around on your lap and your moving fingers on the controller catch her attention. She starts licking and pawing at your thumbs and soon enough it starts affecting your gameplay.

Ellie makes you throw a grenade at your own feet and the paw that’s pressing on your left thumb doesn’t let you move the analog stick fast enough, so your time runs out and you get killed by the exploding device before you can run away.

“Goddammit! Cupcake, control your cat please!” Laura looks at you and snorts when she sees you’re still struggling with your controller and Ellie’s pawing.

“What’s wrong?” She asks with a mocking tone. “She’s just trying to help.” She giggles and you narrow your eyes at her.

You look back and forth between Laura and the screen in front of you for a moment. “Two can play this game, cutie.” You reach for the controller in her hands with your right hand and you start smashing every button you can, making her throw random grenades and flashbangs. She squirms off of the couch and holds her controller out of your reach.

“Hey! Not fair!” Laura squeaks out and giggles.

As soon as Laura finishes her sentence the game comes to an end. Laura’s team won by two points. You huff and glare at Ellie, who’s still moving around in your lap.

“I hope you’re happy with yourself.” You grumble at Ellie.

“I’m very happy.” Laura says with a snort and you glare at her.

“I was talking to the cat, cupcake. But this is not over yet.” You narrow your eyes at her in a challenge.

“Oh really?” Laura challenges back, raising her eyebrows.

“Oh, this is _so_ far from over.” You smirk. Her cheeks start blushing and you lose yourself in her eyes again, but the loud sound of a doorbell brings you back to reality.

“Pizza’s here!” She says excitedly, jumping off the couch and practically running to the door. You can’t help but smile at her reaction.

She comes back carrying a pizza box just a minute later and sets it on the coffee table. She moves quickly to the kitchen and comes back with napkins and two plates. She sits back down next to you and opens up the pizza box.

“I ordered bacon and cheese, is that okay?” She asks with a worried look on her face.

“It’s fine, cupcake.” You say, to reassure her.

“Okay, cool. I love bacon and cheese.” She says and proceeds to shove a slice of pizza in her mouth like it’s the last slice on earth.

You chuckle. This girl is too cute. “Yeah, I can tell.” You say, and her cheeks turn red when she realizes what she’s doing. You can’t stop the smile that’s tugging at the corner of your lips.

 

* * *

 

You’ve been sitting in a comfortable silence, eating pizza and sipping on beer. Ellie is tucked in Carmilla’s lap, napping. You’re still trying to wrap your head around _that_. How is your cat, who most of the time just gives you the cold shoulder, snuggled in Carmilla’s lap sleeping? Where is your real cat and what have they done to it?

You decide it’s time to break the silence. “Okay, what the hell?” Carmilla looks at you with a confused expression. “Are you some sort of cat whisperer or something?”

She smirks at you the same way she always does before she mocks or teases you. “Are you jealous, cupcake?” You glare at her.

In all honesty you’re not sure if you’re jealous of Carmilla or if in reality you’re just jealous of Ellie. Carmilla is running her fingers along Ellie’s fur and you can’t help but wonder what it would feel like if they were running through your hair instead.

The thought of being jealous of a cat is embarrassing and honestly scary so you just push that thought away and hope that it never returns. You can’t be having these thoughts. Especially when she’s standing right in front of you and waiting for an answer.

“Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.” You finally answer, more than ready to change the subject of this conversation.

She snorts. “Super convincing answer, cupcake.” Carmilla says as she scratches the spot between Ellie’s ears and earns a purr in return. You roll your eyes. It’s time to change the subject.

“So, how does it feel to have lost once again?” You tease, with a grin forming on your lips.

She narrows her eyes in your direction. “Oh, please. We both know I would’ve won if it weren’t for Ellie.” Your cat releases a content meow and snuggles impossibly deeper into Carmilla’s lap.

You arch an eyebrow. “You can’t seriously be blaming a cat.”

You know she’s right. You clearly saw Ellie pawing at her controller and there’s no way it didn’t affect her gameplay in some way. You know she’s right, but you can’t stop yourself from teasing her. By now you’ve gathered that she’s competitive and that she likes to win. She’s just like you in that aspect, so you know what buttons to push to get a reaction out of her in this situation.

“Cupcake, I was clearly winning before Ellie came up on my lap.” She says, annoyed. Your little plan to tease her back for all the times she has messed with you is working. She looks down at Ellie and then picks up the controller from where she set it on the couch right next to her before your pizza break. “She’s passed out. Let’s settle this once and for all.”

She’s looking at you with such determination and intensity, you honestly find it super sexy and you get distracted by it for a hot second there, but soon enough you get back down to reality and quickly face the tv to start a new game.

//

Carmilla won. All seven times.

She mentioned sometime around catastrophic loss number four that she used to compete in Counter-Strike tournaments and, honestly, if you’d known that prior to all that’s happened so far you would have picked a different game.

You’re not bad at _First Person Shooters_. Or at least you thought you weren’t… The thing is: you don’t compete. It’s just something you do to relax or to take a break from other types of games. It’s just mindless fun and you thought you were decent at it, but apparently you're not.

Carmilla plays with such concentration and intensity, it’s honestly amazing to watch. She’s precise and fast and smart. Plus, the look on her face when she’s that concentrated on something is quite adorable.

She gets up from the couch right next to you and effectively snaps you back to reality.

“It’s been fun, cupcake, but it’s getting late.” She says as she pulls on her leather jacket, the same one she was wearing last Friday.

You gape at her as she fixes her jacket and runs a hand through her hair. You’re staring again so you shake your head and get up from the couch as well. “Right, yeah, it is getting late.” You repeat her words and a smirk starts forming on her lips.

You walk her to the door of your apartment and open it for her. She closes the distance between you two and suddenly she’s in your space just like she was last Friday. She pushes forward and plants a kiss on your left cheek but, unlike the one she gave you last Friday, this one lingers for a moment longer. You then feel her lips brush against your ear and a shiver runs down your spine.

“Thanks for inviting me over, cutie. I had a lot of fun playing with you.” She whispers against your ear and you can feel the brush of her lips with every word.

She moves away from you and turns to the door with a wink before leaving and making her way down your building’s stairs.

You just stand there for a while, holding on to your apartment door because honestly you’re feeling a bit weak at the knees after that.

You’re so drawn to this woman all over again, which is scary because you told yourself that you had to stop feeling this way. When you found out what she had done, you found out what kind of person she really was. Or at least the kind of person you thought she was because she keeps proving to you time and time again that she’s different.

They say you only get one chance at making a good first impression and that’s absolutely true. And yes, Carmilla did kind of royally fuck that up... But you believe in second chances and you’ve given one to Carmilla. She’s slowly redeeming herself and you know she’s sorry for what she’s done. You saw the genuine look in her eyes when she apologized last Friday.

You know she’s trying to make it right and you hope she knows she’s succeeding.

 

* * *

 

Today you’re on the closing shift with Laf. It was a busy day and you’re definitely feeling a little exhausted but you love your job, you really do. You have a blast every day working with your two best friends, even when the bakery is so busy that you can barely manage to keep the orders flowing.

You step outside, the cold December breeze hitting you like a slap to the face, and Laf locks up the bakery behind you. They’re giving you a ride home and you’re so thankful for that because riding a bike in this weather is probably not a good idea. When you reach their car and get inside you automatically reach for the air conditioning, cranking up the heat and snuggling deeper into your warm winter jacket.

You drive in comfortable silence for a while, enjoying whatever top 50 pop song that’s playing quietly through the speakers. Your phone chimes in your pocket and when you reach for it and see Carmilla’s name on the screen you can’t help but smile.

 **Carm:** hey cutie. wanna hang out today?

It’s been almost two months since the Mario Kart rematch and since the first time she came over to your place to play Call of Duty. You’ve been hanging out a lot ever since and you consider Carmilla a friend now, something you thought would never be possible when you first met her but you’re glad with how things turned out.

You’re pretty exhausted but you haven’t seen her in two days and you’re probably just going to watch a movie or play video games, which is what you would do if you went home anyway, so you don’t see a reason why not to go over to Carmilla’s place.

 **Cupcake:** be there in 10

You stuff your phone back in your pocket and turn to Lafontaine, but before you can say a word, they’re talking. “Let me guess, you want me to drop you off at Carmilla’s place?”

You instantly feel the blush sneaking its way onto your cheeks. “Yeah… But how did you know?”

“You only smile at your phone like that when you’re talking to Carmilla. Plus you hang out like every day. You guys are so married, it’s gross.” They say and the look of embarrassment you give them only makes them chuckle.

They’re totally exaggerating. You and Carmilla don’t hang out _that_ much. Do you? _Oh god_ , you do. You’re not sure how it all happened, but somehow you became part of each other’s routines and you really enjoy her company and she seems to enjoy yours too because she hasn’t stopped coming over or inviting you over.

Your friendship is confusing though. It’s definitely not like your friendship with Laf or Perry. Yeah, _definitely not_.

The thing is: your “friendship” didn’t start in the most _conventional_ way. You were attracted to her before even officially meeting her or speaking to her, but then the DayZ disaster happened and things got a little messy. You lost your momentum but the tension has always been there. You can feel it every time you’re together and it’s only getting stronger and more suffocating

You’ve been playing this nameless game with her for almost two months and it’s only getting more and more confusing as time goes by.

Friends don’t flirt like you two do. And friends also don’t check each other out like you do. You’ve caught her several times but she doesn’t really make an effort to go unnoticed. She just smirks and throws you her signature wink that you used to hate so much but now it makes your knees feel weak. Yeah, you’re not _friends_. But Laf doesn’t need to know that. At least not yet, it’s too soon. 

“Laf please, we’re just friends! Friends hang out. You hang out with Perry all the time.” You say and Laf averts their gaze from the road for a second to narrow their eyes at you.

“We’ve been best friends since we were five and we live together, of course we hang out all the time.”

Goddammit, they make a good point. _Ugh_ , this is honestly why you hate arguing with Laf; they pretty much always win.

“Okay fine! But Carmilla and I don’t hang out _that_ much!” Laf arches an eyebrow and you hate them so much right now. “Okay, we hang out a lot, but that doesn’t mean anything!”

“Come on Laur. Don’t tell me all you’ve been doing for the past couple of months is play video games or whatever.” Laf says, wiggling their eyebrows up and down and you give them a confused look, not really sure what they’re trying to imply. “Are you seriously gonna tell me that you guys never… You know…” They drawl out.

“Never what?” You ask, genuinely confused and Laf gives you a pointed look. _Oh_. “Oh my god, no! What? No! Why would you think that? I-We-We’re just friends, Laf!” You manage to blurt out, the heat on your cheeks certainly giving away how flustered you are.

“You know you can tell me these things, Laura. That’s what friends are f-“

You cut them off before they can make any more unfounded assumptions. “There’s literally nothing to tell.”

You say it with more bite than you intended at first and you can tell that Laf gets the message that this is a sore subject and that it’s annoying you.

“Alright then…” Laf says, gripping their fingers tighter around the steering wheel and now you’re feeling bad for snapping at them when they were only trying to help.

You drive in tense silence for a few more blocks before you can’t hold in your racing thoughts anymore and they come spilling out without warning.

“Look, it’s complicated, okay?” You say, releasing a loud sigh at the end and looking out the window at the people and cars passing by.

“Okay.” Laf responds softly, in a way that lets you know that, if you want to talk, they’re here and they’re going to listen.

“I just… I don’t know. We flirt and joke back and forth all the time, but when things get serious and the mood changes and I feel like something’s about to happen and we get close she just… I don’t know, it feels like her walls go up and like she’s scared of something and it makes me so frustrated because I can’t read her. I don’t know what she’s feeling so when she’s the one trying to get close I’m the one that backs away because I need to know what she wants, I don’t want to get hurt and-“

“Laura!” Laf cuts you off. “Breathe, please!”

You take their advice and take a deep breath.

“Are you saying you have feelings for her?” Laf asks you and you’re a little taken aback.

In the past few weeks you’ve admittedly been afraid to indulge the thought that maybe you do have feelings for her. You know you feel…something, but it’s hard to let yourself _feel_ when you don’t know what _she_ feels. The “not knowing” is what’s been driving you crazy.

“I… I don’t know, Laf. I don’t know.” You let out a deep sigh. “Like I was saying before, I don’t know what she feels and that scares me.”

“Well, have you tried actually asking her how she feels?” You glare at them because you both know that isn’t an option. They roll their eyes. “Okay, fine.”

You continue driving in silence until you reach the outside of Carmilla’s building. You move to open the car door, but Lafontaine stops you.

“Look, from an outside perspective, I gotta say… Carmilla looks at you with the most disgustingly gross hearteyes. So, yeah… Just relax and don’t overthink things, Laur. Everything will fall into place eventually. You’ll see.” They finish, offering you a gentle smile.

“Thanks, Laf.” You say, a bit flustered because of the _hearteyes_ comment.

Does Carmilla really look at you like that? Lafontaine is probably just exaggerating, like they always are. Right?

You shake your head and send out a text to Carmilla, telling her to buzz you in.

//

“I’m sick of playing this. Let’s do something else.” Carmilla huffs and sets the controller on the coffee table.

“Funny how you only say that when you’re losing.” You side-eye her and she rolls her eyes in return.

“We’ve been playing for hours, cupcake. My eyes are tired.”

“Please, I’ve literally seen you play _Fallout 4_ for five hours straight.”

Carmilla narrow’s her eyes at you. “Touché. But I still wanna do something else.” She whines and then her expression changes to excitement. “Let’s watch a movie!”

“Fine, but I’m picking.” You say and reach for the tv remote, turning on Netflix and scrolling through all the movie options.

“You always pick.” She says with a pout, and after thinking about it for a second: yes, she’s right.

“Well, yeah, because you always pick a boring documentary or a horror movie. I’m doing us both a favor.”

She snorts. “Fine. But I’m not watching Mulan again!”

You continue scrolling through the options and you come across one of your favorite movies of all time. Carmilla has probably watched it before, but you haven’t watched it in years so maybe you can convince her.

“Okay, we gotta watch E.T.” Carmilla’s head whips around in your direction and she sits up straighter on the couch.

“What?” She asks.

“E.T.? Have you never watched it? It’s a great movie, we should totally watch it. And did you know that the little girl is played by Drew Barrymore? Isn’t that crazy, she’s so tiny! And the relationship between Elliot and-“

“I’ve watched it before, cupcake.” She interrupts and you frown.

“Do you maybe want to watch it again? I haven’t watched it in years and-“

“Absolutely not. Let’s just pick another one.” She says and you don’t understand why she’s so set on not wanting to watch it. It’s such a great movie.

“Come on, Carm. What’s wrong with this movie? It’s so great and I haven’t watched it in years and now I really want to, pleaaaase” You offer her your best puppy eyes. She usually falls for those surprisingly fast.

She glares at you and then sits back on the couch, crossing her arms and pouting. “Okay, fine. But you’re the one that heats up the popcorn then.” _Surprisingly fast._

You squeal in excitement. “Deal!”

Without really thinking, you lean in and give her a quick peck on the cheek, quickly getting up from the couch and moving towards the kitchen without having any time to dwell on what you just did.

When you come back with two bowls of popcorn, Carmilla is laying on the couch, leaving no space for you to sit, and the movie is ready to play. You set one of the bowls down on her stomach and unceremoniously grab her legs so you can sit down, setting them back down on your lap. You pick up the remote and press play, cranking up the volume until you hear Carmilla exasperatedly say _“really?”_ beside you.

//

The end credits roll in and your heart feels like it’s breaking into a million pieces but at the same time it feels so warm and full. You almost cried but, despite what people might think, it takes a lot for movies or tv shows to make you cry. You can get very emotional, but you rarely shed a tear.

You hear a sniffle beside you and when you turn your head you’re met with a sight you never expected to see; Carmilla (who’s still laying down with her legs resting on your lap) is hugging a pillow and wiping away a tear. Her eyes are red and her mouth is formed into a frown.

“Carm?” You reach for her arm. “Carm, are you-are you crying?”

She releases the pillow like it was burning her skin, wipes her eyes and sits up. “Don’t be ridiculous, cupcake. Of course not.” She says, failing miserably to hide the trembling of her voice.

“Carm, come on.” You reach for her hand that’s resting on her thigh and give it a gentle squeeze. “Was it the movie? What’s going on? Talk to me.”

She sniffles. “It’s this stupid movie, it gets me every time. I don’t wanna talk about it. Let’s just pretend this never happened, okay?”

She likes to pretend that she’s all mysterious and disaffected, but you know that in reality she’s a big softy and a sap. You’ve realized that a while ago, because she’s not very good at hiding it. It’s adorable. 

“Okay.” You look at your joined hands for a moment. “I get it. It’s an emotional movie. I could barely hold in the tears as well.” That’s a lie, but you’re just trying to make her feel better about this. “I mean, Elliot’s reaction when he finds out E.T. is not really dead? That scene is so intense, I-” She’s glaring at you so you decide it’s best to stop talking about this. “Sorry, I’ll stop.”

“It’s okay. Let’s just do something else.” She says, wiping away the last of her tears.

You unlock your phone to look at the time and you frown. “It’s getting late though, I should probably…”

“No, please stay.” She interrupts and she’s looking at you with an unreadable expression. Her eyes are still red and puffy and you can’t really say no to that face.

“Okay.” You say, offering her a reassuring smile.

You pick up the remote and start scrolling through Netflix again. When you finally find what you were looking for you lay down on the couch, resting your legs on Carmilla’s lap, and you hit the play button to start a new episode.

“Come on, cupcake. Why do you insist on making me watch this godawful show?” Carmilla huffs beside you.

“You can stop pretending that you don’t like Doctor Who, Carm.”

“I don’t need to pretend because I really don’t like it.”

You narrow your eyes at her. “If you really hated it that much you would’ve already taken the remote and switched to something else.”

She sighs in defeat because she knows you’re right. “Whatever.”

She sinks further down on the couch with a pout and rests her hands on your legs, rubbing soothing circles on your knee. The long day of work you had finally catches up to you and you feel your eyes closing.

You can’t help but think that right now you wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here, with her.

 

* * *

 

The episode ends and the credits roll in and you’re surprised to find yourself feeling sad that it’s over (not that you’d ever admit that to Laura though). You turn to Laura, waiting for the usual long rant she goes on after every episode you watch, but she’s asleep, breathing in long, slow strokes. You sit looking down at her for a moment, and a sudden rush of adoration pushes through you like a wave.

Her mouth is slightly open and her hair is all over the place. She looks ridiculous and beautiful all at the same time, and even a week ago you would have been fighting these thoughts about her and feeling guilty for having them, but you can’t help it anymore. This girl is adorable and you’re in too deep.

She starts shifting and squirming beside you, talking in quiet whines you can’t quite comprehend, most probably gibberish. She’s having a dream. Or quite possibly a nightmare.

“Laura?” You call out softly, but the girl continues to squirm and whine. You lift your left hand from where it was resting on her thigh and gently shake her shoulder. “Laura, wake up. It’s just a dream.”

The girl’s body seems to relax a little at your touch, but her whining doesn’t stop. It’s killing you to be seeing her struggle like this. She looks so panicked and helpless. You shake her shoulder once more with slightly more force, but hoping not to startle her even more, and grab her right hand with your right one, rubbing slow but firm circles on her knuckles.

“Laura? Laura?” You call out a little louder than the last times. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

Her body fully relaxes and her whining comes to a stop. The hand you’re holding squeezes your hand back and she slowly opens her eyes. She looks around the room confused for a moment, and then looks at you and you notice how watery her eyes are, full of tears that are threatening to fall.

You offer her a gentle smile and lift the hand you had on her shoulder to wipe away a single tear that escaped and cup her cheek, rubbing soothing circles on her skin to calm her down and assure her that she’s safe. She looks so beautiful even now while she cries, but you’d still do anything to never see her cry like this again. You much rather see her smile.

“Welcome back, cupcake.” You say softly and she offers you a shy smile. “Nightmare?” You ask and she nods in confirmation. “Wanna talk about it?”

She intertwines the fingers of your joined hands and your heart reacts immediately, beating faster in your chest. She looks at your joined hands for a moment and then locks eyes with you.

“No, it’s fine. It was stupid anyway…” She says, her cheeks turning pinker, and you know she’s hiding something but you don’t know why.

“You can tell me, you know?” Maybe she doesn’t trust you yet, but you’ve been hanging out for a while, you figured she did. You hope she knows she can trust you. “Maybe it would help. You know… Letting it all out. Or whatever.” You say, a bit shyly. You don’t really know how to do this. How to calm someone down. But you’re trying.

You trust her. At least you think you do. Which is scary because you swore you’d never let anyone get this close to you again but Laura is a hurricane and with her you lose all control. As much as you tried to maintain your emotional distance at the beginning of all of this, hurricane Laura is breaking your walls down every day that goes by.

When she comes over on your bad days they stop being bad days as soon as she walks through your front door. She is light and warmth and you are darkness and cold, but with every smile, laugh, giggle, corny joke, her light seeps through you and you feel her heat spreading through your body.

She covers her face with the hand that’s not holding yours. “You’re gonna make fun of me.”

“What? Laura, come on.” You reach for the hand that’s covering her face and move it away. “Why would I make fun of you?”

“Promise you won’t make fun of me if I tell you about my nightmare then?” She asks, looking down at your joined hands with apprehension.

“I promise.” You assure her.

She takes a deep breath before she starts talking. “So I was hanging out with Misty and Brock, right? And I’m not really sure where Ash was but he wasn’t there for some reason.” It takes you a moment to realize who she’s talking about but when it hits you that she’s talking about Pokémon it takes every bit of strength you have in you not to roll your eyes or laugh, but you made her a promise and you don’t intend on breaking it.

“And then out of nowhere a wild Snorlax appears.” She continues. “And he is huge, Carm. Like really, really huge.” You nod for her to continue, trying your hardest to hide the smile that’s tugging at the corner of your lips, but she’s too focused on her story to notice anyway. “He starts attacking so we obviously start fighting back. We enter this epic battle and I was confident at first because I had Brock and Misty by my side but then I throw my poké ball and guess what pokémon comes out of it?”

“Umm…” You were never really that interested in Pokémon, so you don’t know much about it. You’re about to answer with the first pokémon name that comes to mind, which is Pikachu obviously, when she cuts you off.

“Jigglypuff! Can you believe it?” She says with so much outrage and you don’t quite understand why but you still shake your head in disbelief, like you’re totally relating to her pain. “As if that wasn’t bad enough, Brock and Misty just bolt for no apparent reason and leave me all alone to fight Snorlax. How am I supposed to fight this huge Snorlax with my tiny, useless Jigglypuff?”

“That’s… Yeah, that’s crazy, cupcake!” This promise you made is getting harder to keep.

“So Jigglypuff starts singing, like she always does, and you should’ve seen her eyes, Carm…” She looks like she has just seen a ghost. “Pure darkness.” Her eyes are fixed on the wall behind you and you can tell that she’s spacing out.

You snap your fingers in front of her eyes. “Cupcake, come back. Focus.”

“Hum?” She snaps out of it and looks at you. “Oh right, where was I?” She looks pensive for a moment. “Right, the fight. So I’m thinking that maybe this might work. Maybe she’ll start singing and puts Snorlax to sleep and I can just run, you know?” You nod, although by now you’re not understanding much of this conversation. “But Snorlax literally swings his gigantic paw at Jigglypuff and she just goes flying and screaming in horror.”

You’re about to break down and finally release the chuckle that’s been building in your throat because this is getting way too ridiculous to bare, but she sniffs and this must be the scariest part of her dream so you figure this must be difficult for her to talk about. You squeeze her hands in support and she gives you a sad smile before continuing her story.

“So now I’m all alone and Snorlax is moving towards me with the creepiest smile. You know when you try to run in dreams but you don’t move an inch or when you try to scream but it feels like you have no voice?” You do know that feeling all too well so you nod. “That’s what was happening and Snorlax was getting closer and closer and I was so scared, Carm.” She says, her eyes watering all over again.

You offer her a gentle smile and squeeze her hands again. “You’re okay now, cupcake. I can’t promise Snorlax won’t come bursting through that door though.” You say with a mocking tone, trying to lighten the mood. She rolls her eyes and gives your shoulder a gentle shove. “What happened next? Did he get to you?”

“No, you woke me up before he had the chance.”

“So technically I saved your life?” You ask with a smug grin on your face.

Laura rolls her eyes. “Oh please, it was a dream, Carm.” You blush at the use of the nickname, like you have been doing every time she uses it. You never let anyone call you that before, but with the way it sounded rolling off her tongue the first time you heard it a couple of weeks ago, you didn’t have it in you to tell her to stop.

“Is that how you thank your life savior?” You gasp, bringing one hand to your chest with a mock offended look on your face.

She arches an eyebrow but a smile manages to slip through, revealing the amusement she was trying to hide in the first place. “Hilarious.” She says and then looks at her phone. “Holly Hufflepuff, it’s late. I should go. You probably want to sleep and all.” She says, sitting up on the couch and reaching for the shoes she discarded earlier. She releases a deep yawn while she laces them up.

“You should just stay here, cupcake. You’re obviously exhausted. Plus, it’s not safe to go out on the streets at this hour. A wild Snorlax might appear out of nowhere.” As soon as you’re done with that sentence you’re being hit in the face with one of your couch pillows.

“Not funny, Carm. That was a traumatic experience.” Laura says with a pout, but you notice how she has stopped lacing up her shoes.

“Seriously though, you should stay.” You say, offering her a gentle smile.

She smiles back and you can see the slight blush on her cheeks. “Thanks, Carm.”

She removes her shoes and stands up from the couch. You lead her to your bedroom and pick out a pair of sweats and a t-shirt for her to sleep in.

“Just make yourself at home, cupcake. There’s more blankets in the closet if you get cold during the night and if you need anything else I’ll be sleeping on the couch. You can wake me up if it’s something urgent but I won’t promise not to be grumpy or-”

“Wait. You’re sleeping on the couch?” Laura asks, with that cute little pout you like so much.

“Um… Yeah. I mean, the bed’s way more comfortable but I’m obviously a great host. I can’t make you sleep on that couch.”

She narrows her eyes at you and arches an eyebrow. “Don’t be ridiculous, Carm. There’s more than enough space on this bed for the two of us. You don’t have to sleep on the couch.”

The thought of sharing a bed with her is suddenly a little overwhelming.

There’s no denying that what you feel for Laura is not strictly platonic anymore. It never really was. There’s always been a feeling of attraction and getting to know her better and letting her into your life has only helped to amplify that feeling. Maybe even into something more than just attraction, but you’re too afraid to explore that thought for now.

You know there was something going on between you before the whole DayZ disaster happened and you know that whatever was going on before subsided for a while, but you can feel it slowly coming back. She was attracted to you before and attraction doesn’t just go away like that, so you know she still feels it.

You can see it in the way she looks at you. There’s always this tension in the air and you know it’s not just the competitiveness between you because of the video games. There’s something to explore between you, but you don’t want to overstep any boundaries.

You’re friends and friends share beds all the time though, so it’s no big deal really. At least that’s what you keep telling yourself, trying to convince yourself that this is a good idea and that it won’t in any way make things even more difficult for you.

You release a deep sigh. “Fine.” She smiles brightly. “But if you snore or hog the covers I’ll ban you to the couch.” You say jokingly and Laura giggles.

You’re making your way to the bathroom to get ready for bed when you see from the corner of your eye Laura taking off her shirt and revealing a dark blue bra underneath. You widen your eyes, you take a deep breath and you ask yourself why you ever thought this would be a good idea.

You get back from the bathroom a few minutes later, ready for bed, and the sight of Laura tucked in your bed and wearing your t-shirt warms your heart in a way you haven’t felt in a long time. Her eyes are closed and she looks so peaceful. You know she’s been working all day so she must have been really exhausted.

You get under the covers next to her and turn off the bedside table lamp, the only light illuminating your room coming from the moon and the street lamps outside. You lie on your left side, facing her, and the way the low light traces her features takes your breath away.

She’s so beautiful. You hope she knows it.

Your hand itches to trace those features highlighted so beautifully by the moon, but you decide against it. You settle on watching her for a while instead. Her slow and long breaths calming you and making your eyelids feel heavier.

You fall asleep faster than you have in years.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaawwww how gross <3  
> (a lot more grossness planned for chapter 4 so stay tuned folks)
> 
> anyway, thank you for reading!! leave a comment with what you liked and didn't like and please do point out any silly mistakes you might have found (i dont have a beta)
> 
> if anyone also plays stardew valley, please talk to me about it im very passionate.  
> i've also recently started playing Lifeline on my phone and 10/10 would recommend.   
> let me know if you have any video game suggestions!
> 
> you can find me and talk to me on tumblr at frillyhella :)


	4. Party Mode: Enabled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so last chapter ended with a little sleepover so now we get to see how the morning after goes...  
> and also a party happens, maybe??? read and find out folks!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a long time, I know and I'm sorry.  
> Writer's block sucks and life is hard sometimes, but I'm back and I'm super excited to start writing chapter 5 because of reasons...  
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

You blink your eyes open and the first thing you register is Carmilla’s smell and that you’re lying on top of a very warm, very soft pillow.

It takes you a hot second to remember that you stayed the night at Carmilla’s place. And also that you slept on her bed. And that she did too.

You try to move but there’s an arm pressing against your back that tightens its hold on you and doesn’t let you go.

 _Oh god_ , you’re lying on Carmilla.

Your head is resting on her chest, your nose pressing against her neck, and your left arm and leg are draped across her body. She’s got an arm around you, keeping you in place, and she’s breathing slowly and deeply. She’s fast asleep and you’re the idiot that’s using her as a (very comfortable) human pillow.

You briefly consider moving (which you really should do), but she sounds so peaceful, you’d hate to be the one to wake her up. Plus, you can kind of tell that it’s still early and you know that she’s not a morning person. You definitely don’t want to have to deal with a grumpy Carmilla first thing in the morning. (At least this is what you keep telling yourself to somehow justify whatever it is that you’re doing)

With the way that your head is pressed against her chest, you can hear her heartbeat. It’s slow and steady, it makes your eyelids feel heavy again. You’re considering the pros and cons of just taking a nap when her heart rate picks up and her body stiffens. She’s definitely awake now…

You panic so your instinct is to pretend that you’re still asleep. You don’t want her to know that you were awake and still on top of her being lulled back to sleep by her heart beat. That’s like, all kinds of super weird. You close your eyes tightly and you hope that she can’t tell that you’re awake.

She sighs deeply and her body relaxes, as does her heart rate. You feel the slight brush of her fingers against your cheek, gently moving away the stray hairs from your face and tucking them behind your ear. You can’t help it when your lips form into a small smile.

After fixing your hair, her hand runs down your arm and comes to rest on top of the hand you had sprawled open on her belly, moving with every breath she takes. Her other arm tightens its hold on your back and she snuggles impossibly closer to you.

She releases a content sigh and you can feel her drifting back to sleep. So you do too.

 

* * *

 

You wake up with a plate of bacon and eggs being shoved in your face.

“Wake up, sleepy head. I made breakfast!” Laura says excitedly.

“Ugh, no. It’s too early.” You say, waving the plate away and covering your face with a pillow.

“Carmilla, it’s 1pm.”

“Exactly, cupcake.” You say and you can hear the loud huff that Laura releases.

There’s silence for a few seconds and you think that maybe Laura has given up. You were tragically wrong because next thing you know Laura’s on top of you, tickling your sides after she violently snatched the pillow away from your face.

“Cupcake, stop!” You whine, squirming under her.

She knows how ticklish you are but you know that she’s ticklish too so you fight back. She squirms and giggles when you first tickle her sides and she quickly grabs both of your hands and pins them on either side of your head. She’s panting and still giggling and if you had the power to stop time you would do it right now so you could fully take in the sight of her.

“I propose a truce.” She says, between pants.

“Deal.” You give in, expecting her to release the hold she has on your wrists and climb off of you.

She doesn’t though. She stays in the same place, knees hugging your hips, looking at you. You’re both still trying to catch your breaths, which becomes increasingly harder to do when she’s on top of you, with a look you can’t quite figure out. No one’s ever looked at you the way she does, and it’s messing with your head.

The grip she has on your wrists softens and she slides her hands upwards, resting them on top of yours. In what feels like a sudden rush of adrenaline, you intertwine your fingers with hers and give her hands a gentle squeeze. You’re half expecting her to pull away, but when she squeezes back, your heart almost beats out of your chest.

You swear that for a moment it looks like she’s about to lean in. You want nothing more than to lean in too and meet her halfway, but she looks so conflicted, you want her to be sure. You haven’t talked about this. Whatever _this_ is. You’re not even sure if there’s actually _something_ to talk about.

Your mind thinks back to the moment you shared earlier this morning. You know she was awake. You saw the smile on her face when you tucked her hair behind her ear (and also you could feel and practically hear her heart beat like crazy).

Your stomach sinks a little when she shakes her head slightly and sits up straight, removing her hands from yours. She climbs off of you and sits down on the edge of the bed, reaching for the plate of eggs and bacon she discarded on the bedside table before your tickle fight.

She places the plate under your nose again. “You should eat before it gets cold.”

You nod and sit up on the bed, taking the plate in your hands and leaning back against the headboard. The mood is different now. It was playful a second ago but now it feels awkward and heavy.

“Thanks, by the way.” You say, after taking a few bites and she looks at you with a questioning look. “For breakfast, I mean. It’s really good.”

“I’m glad you like it.” She says, smiling shyly, the way she always does when you pay her a compliment.

“I didn’t even know I had bacon.” You pause. “Or eggs.” She chuckles.

“You didn’t.” She says and you look at her in confusion. “I might’ve made a quick trip to my apartment and back.” She finishes, shyly, and you had no idea she could get even cuter than she already was.

“You didn’t have to do that.” You say and you hope she knows how truly thankful you are for this gesture.

“It’s no problem, really.” She gives your knee a gentle squeeze.

You take the last bite and set the plate back down on the bedside table. You release a loud, content sigh and Laura giggles.

“How long have you been up?” You ask.

“A couple of hours. I’ve been playing Super Mario on your DS.”

“You better not have messed up my progress.”

“Don’t worry, I was too busy beating your highscores.” She says, with a grin, and you narrow your eyes at her.

“Cute.” You say and her grin only widens.

There’s a pause where you both just look at each other, but then she quickly gets up and reaches for her shoes.

“I should go.” She says, lacing up her shoes and you want nothing more than to tell her to stay. But you can’t. You just nod your head slightly and get up from the bed.

You lead her towards the exit of the apartment, and when you pass the kitchen you notice that she must have washed all the dirty dishes because it’s definitely cleaner than usual. You can’t help but think that you don’t deserve this girl, but you’re glad she’s in your life.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” You say as you reach for the door. “Kirsch is having a party next weekend at his parents’ place. You could stop by, I guess. If you want…” She narrows her eyes.

“Let me guess, it’s gonna be full of drunk frat boys?”

“I mean, obviously. It’s Kirsch.” You say and she gives you a knowing look. “But if you came I wouldn’t have to suffer alone.”

She pauses, presumably considering it. “Can I bring Perry and Laf?” She finally says and you sigh.

“Fine.” You say with an exasperated tone.

“I know you like them, Carmilla. You can stop pretending.”

“Whatever, cupcake, just please come to the party. I need someone there to stop me from decking drunk dude bros in the face.” You say and she giggles.

“Fine, I’ll go. But I can’t promise not to deck drunk dude bros in the face myself.” She says and you smile.

“Wouldn’t stop you if you tried.” You say and she smacks your arm playfully.

You open the door for her to leave, but she just stands there, looking like she’s having an internal crisis. She finally leans forward and places a quick kiss to your cheek, leaving you stunned and breathless.

“Okay bye!” She squeaks and quickly turns away, making her way down the hallway towards the stairs.

You chuckle and close the door. You lean back against it and release a content sigh.

Maybe this party won’t be so bad after all.

 

* * *

 

“So, tell me again why you dragged us all the way to god knows where to attend a party that’s certainly gonna be full of dude bros?” Laf asks, pulling you away from your thoughts.

You’ve been driving for nearly an hour. Apparently Kirsch’s parents have a huge house in the middle of nowhere and they’re out of town, so Kirsch, being the great son that he is, decided to throw a party for all his friends, including his frat house buddies.

“I told you, Kirsch invited you.” You pause. Technically it was Carmilla who invited them. No, actually it was you who insisted on dragging them along. But it’s fine, Kirsch won’t mind. “And I might’ve also needed a ride…” You mumble that last part, but by the way Perry glares at you, she must have heard you anyway.

“Isn’t your girlfriend going? Why didn’t you ride with her?” Laf asks.

“OH MY GOD, SHE’S NOT-” Perry gives you a pointed look that makes you realize you’re shouting. “She’s not my girlfriend, okay? Can you please stop saying that? She’ll hear you say it one day.”

“Would that be such a bad thing?” Laf asks and leaves you confused.

“What?”

“I’m just saying that it might be the last little push you guys need to… you know…”

“There will be absolutely no pushing of any kind, do you understand?” You say sternly and your friends stay silent. “Nod if you understand.” They share a glance and nod.

You fall back in silence, looking out the window. The view has been the same for the last thirty minutes: trees. You hope that Laf’s GPS has the right address because you’re really not in the mood to be stuck in the woods at night. You’ve played enough video games to know that darkness and woods is not a safe combination.

“Laura, dear, why do you look so nervous?” Perry asks, breaking the silence. “You haven’t stopped shifting around since we got in the car. You’re starting to make _me_ nervous.”

“Oh, she’s just anxious because she hasn’t seen Carmilla all week. She’s like a puppy with separation anxiety.” Laf says and you huff.

“Laf, I swear to god!”

“I’m kidding! Relax, L! I promise I won’t embarrass you in front of your girlfriend.” Laf says and Perry smacks them on the arm.

“Lafontaine, that’s enough! Leave Laura alone!” Perry says while Laf giggles.

“Ugh, I hate you.” You say, crossing your arms and sinking back into the car seat.

In the midst of your sulking you spot a gleam of light up the road that must finally be Kirsch’s house. At least you hope it is because you don’t know how much longer you can put up with Laf’s teasing.

As you get closer it becomes clear that this is indeed Kirsch’s place. It’s a pretty large two story house. It’s just like Carmilla described it: it has big windows with white frames and the front door is red, contrasting with the blue paneled walls. The spacious front lawn is currently filled with parked cars that are certainly ruining it. You do not want to be here when Mrs. Kirsch comes back from her relaxed vacation to the Bahamas and finds her house trashed and her beautiful front lawn ruined.

Laf, not wanting to take part in the murder of a nice and innocent lawn, parks the car on a patch of dirt off to the side of the house. You get out of the car along with your friends and as you’re making your way to the front door you turn to them.

“Please promise me you’ll behave?”

“We are not the only ones who need to behave, Laura. You have a plane to catch in the morning and trust me, you do not want to be on a flight with a hangover.” Laf pauses. “Oh, and don’t run away with _not your girlfriend_ Carmilla and disappear on us all night. We have to get back by three if you still want to catch some sleep before your flight.”

“Lafontaine is right, dear. And if you do end up… um… disappearing with Carmilla, please be aware of your phone so we can contact you.” Perry adds.

“You guys sound like my dad.” You huff in response.

You hate it when they do this: treat you like a child. You know they’re just trying to look out for you but one overprotective parent is enough, you don’t need three. You can take care of yourself just fine and you just wish they would realize that.

When you make your way through the front door you’re immediately attacked by the loud music and the strong smell of booze and sweat. You’re a little taken aback by it and, if the look of disgust on their faces is enough of an indication, so are your friends.

You’re looking around the room, trying to find Kirsch or Carmilla, when you lock eyes with your friend Danny. You haven’t seen her in a while so you smile brightly at her and wave her over.

“I didn’t know you were coming! How have you been, Laura?” Danny says enthusiastically, giving you a tight hug.

You chat for a bit, but your eyes start wondering around the room again and you’re now looking at the top of the staircase, where Carmilla is sitting on the steps with a glass in her hand and smiling back at you.  

_God, you’ve missed her._

You excuse yourself from your friends and you start making your way towards her. Behind you, you faintly hear Laf say _“Wow, she didn’t even last one minute.”_ , but you don’t care.

You reach the top of the staircase and it takes every bit of strength in you not to lunge forward and envelop her in a tight hug.

“Hey.” You say, unable to contain your beaming smile and she smirks.

“Hey.”

 

* * *

 

Where the hell is Laura? There’s only so many dude bros that can try to hit on you before you finally lose your cool and start throwing your drink in their faces. Up until now you’ve been giving them your usual death stare that works pretty well on scaring them off, but if another one of these troglodytes tries to talk to you again… You’re not sure you’ll be able to control yourself.

People started arriving a couple of hours ago. The party is now in full swing. People are drunk, the music is loud and obnoxious, there’s people groping each other on the couch, and the air smells like a locker room and cheap beer.

You’re seriously regretting coming to this party and inviting Laura and her friends into this mess. Deep down you knew it would be like this, but for some reason there’s always a small part of you that still has hope for Kirsch and his bad decisions.

You’re sitting on top of the stair case. It’s a little quieter than downstairs and from here you can also see the front door. Laura should be arriving any minute now. Should you text her? You haven’t texted her since this afternoon when you gave her the directions to this place. Maybe you should text her again, just to make sure everything’s okay… You’re about to reach for your phone when a splotch of red hair moving downstairs catches your attention.

_Danny Lawrence._

Of course she’s here. As if this party couldn’t get any worse…

She’s suddenly hugged by a tiny human (most humans are tiny next to her, but anyway…) and you only notice who it is when they break apart.

You can tell that you’re smiling like a dork, but you can’t really help doing that every time you see her.

She’s talking to Danny, smiling and laughing, and you can already feel that faint burning sensation inside you. It’s jealousy. You hate it. You hate that she brings out this side of you. What do you even have to be jealous of? She’s not yours. And you’re not hers.

The thought that she might never be yours is making your smile falter, but when you see the smile on her face when she finally lands her eyes on you, yours comes back ten times brighter than before.

She excuses herself from her friends and starts making her way towards you. When she reaches the top of the stairs and stands right in front of you, all you want to do is kiss her, but you don’t.

You definitely don’t want your first kiss to be in a smelly house party filled with dude bros. And you definitely need to stop thinking about kissing Laura or your brain will start short circuiting and you’ll no doubt make a fool of yourself somehow.

“Hey.” She says and the smile on your face only grows.

“Hey.” You reply. “I was starting to think you’d never show up.”

“Who would want to miss the opportunity of witnessing more disgusting groping on a dance floor than anyone should ever witness in a lifetime?”

You chuckle, but now you’re starting to feel bad for dragging Laura and her friends into this mess of a party.

“And also, you invited me, so of course I showed up.” She trails off and you can feel the heat rising to your cheeks.

“I’ll be sure to invite you to any future disgusting frat boy parties then.” You tease her and she snorts.

She takes a sit next to you on the steps and it’s silent between you for a moment. She’s observing the party downstairs, certainly getting more irreversibly traumatized by the second. You look at her, bringing the glass in your hands to your lips and when her eyes shift to look at it, you smirk.

“Do you want me to go get you a drink, cupcake?”

“I’d love a drink right now, but I probably shouldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“I have an early flight in the morning.” She must notice your sudden look of surprise so she decides to elaborate. “I’m flying back home to spend Christmas with my dad.”

“Oh.” She matches your frown. “That sucks. I bought _Gang Beasts_ yesterday so we could play together.”

That’s not what you want to tell her. You want to tell her how much you’ll miss her, but you’re an idiot so of course you use a video game as an excuse as to why it sucks that she’s leaving.

You didn’t have any time to hang out with Laura this week because it’s the holiday season so both of your stores have been crazy busy. Now you’re regretting not making more effort to spend time with her after work. You probably would’ve had to sacrifice some precious sleep hours, but for her you’d do that gladly.

 “Ugh, why would you tell me that? Now all I’m going to be able to think about while I’m away is how I’m totally going to kick your ass when I get back.”

“Hilarious as always, cupcake.” You pause. “When do you fly back?”

“On the 29th.”

Okay, that’s not so bad. It’s two weeks. You can survive two weeks without seeing her every day, right? Hell, you’ve gone this past week without seeing her, so it can’t be that different, right? You can’t help but think that it is indeed different this time. You didn’t see her this week but, if you had had the time, you could’ve because she’s just a few blocks away. But now, no matter how much free time you have to spend with her in the next two weeks, she’s not going to be there.

 _God_ , when did you become this attached? It’s gross and it has to stop.

“I’ll text you all the time.” She says and you roll your eyes. “I know you enjoy my texts, you can stop pretending, Carmilla.” You can only chuckle because she’s right, you do enjoy your text conversations with Laura.

You usually text late at night, when you’re both having a hard time falling asleep. Or those texts she sends you when you’re bored at work. Those texts make your day.

“We can skype too!” She adds excitedly.

“Sure, whatever you want, sweetheart.” You say and smile at her.

“See? You won’t even notice I’m gone!” She says and you can’t help but think how wrong she is.

“I think I will.” You sigh and she frowns.

“Hey.” She calls out, prompting you do look at her. “I’ll be back in time for New Year’s.”

“I know, I’m just sad that I’m gonna have to wait two weeks until I can destroy you at _Gang Beasts_.” You joke, because that’s your coping mechanism when conversations get a bit too serious.

Laura playfully smacks you on the arm. “Dork.” She says and you both laugh.

You can’t wait for New Year’s Eve to come. 

 

* * *

 

It’s now almost midnight, which means you’ve been at this party for almost three hours. You’ve already won three beer pong matches with Carmilla as your teammate, although it’s not that great of an accomplishment because by now every dude bro in this party is fairly drunk so it’s really not that difficult to win. They can barely see the cups, let alone actually throw a ping pong ball in them.

You’re currently sitting on a couch with Carmilla by your side, taking a break from the party to breathe. You are, however, squished together (which ultimately defeats the purpose of this ‘breathing’ break) because there’s a couple sitting next to you that has been aggressively making out for the last fifteen minutes.

You decide you’ve had enough of them so you get up from the couch, extending your hand to Carmilla.

“Let’s dance.” You suggest and she snorts.

“I don’t dance, sweetheart.” Carmilla scoffs.

“Come on! It’ll be fun!” You try to convince her, but she’s still not getting up from the couch. “Please, Carm. For me.” You do your best puppy eyes, which usually work.

She stares at you for a moment, annoyance clear on her face, but then she rolls her eyes, gets up from the couch and grabs your hand.

“Fine. But only for one song!” She says and you squeal in excitement. You’re more than satisfied with this compromise.

You lead her to the dance floor hand in hand, navigating through all the sweaty and disoriented bodies. When you find a gap in the crowd where you can dance without hitting or being hit by someone, you turn to Carmilla and grab both of her hands. Some song with a deep bass and catchy melody is playing and you’re moving Carmilla’s arms around, trying to get her to do something, but she’s apparently refusing to move.

“Carm!” You whine. “You said you’d dance with me.”

“I told you I don’t dance.”

“Why not? It’s fun!” You lift one of her arms and twirl her around. “See?”

She looks utterly unimpressed at first, but then you can see the hint of a smile on the corner of her lips.

You continue moving to the rhythm of the song, swinging her arms and you notice how she has started to move her hips as well. She then moves closer to you, placing her mouth right next to your ear, effectively knocking all the air right out of your chest.

“I’ll have you know that I hate everything right now.” She says, her hot breath against your ear sending a shiver down your back.

“Don’t be such a baby, Carmilla. I know you’re enjoying this. How could you not when you’re dancing with such a cute girl. Aka me.” You joke and she chuckles.

 “You make a valid point.” She smirks and you can feel the heat on your cheeks.

“Then dance with me.” You say and she sighs.

“Fine.” She says, fake exasperation in her voice. You know her well enough by now to know when she’s being stubborn and broody.

She starts moving her hips with more enthusiasm now, but she’s closer to you. There’s almost no gap between your bodies and you can feel the heat starting to build up between you. You grab her hand to twirl your body around but before you can fully face her, Carmilla wraps an arm around your waist and pulls you closer, your back now pressed against her front.

_Well, this backfired quickly._

You’re not complaining. Far from it, actually. You are thoroughly enjoying yourself right now, feeling her hips move against yours and her breath against your ear, you just weren’t expecting for things to get this heated.

You haven’t talked to Carmilla yet. All you know is that you like her. A lot. And you have a feeling that she likes you too, but the thought of you being totally wrong about this and freaking her out is enough to deter you from saying anything to her. But at the same time, there’s nothing you want more right now than to turn around and kiss her like she’s yours. Turn around and tell her how much you care about her.

But you can’t do that. At least not right now. It’s not the right time.

You shake your head and concentrate on the music and the feeling of Carmilla’s body moving against yours. In a moment of sudden courage, you turn around and wrap your arms around her neck, keeping your bodies close while her hands land on your waist.

Your hips keep moving together to the beat of the song and you’re getting lost in the smell of her perfume. Her hands are griping your hips now and you can feel her lips ghosting against your cheek. All you have to do is turn your head slightly to the side.

You don’t have enough time to consider the pros and cons of kissing Carmilla in the middle of this dance floor because the song comes to an end and the one they play next is slow. Like, ‘ _slow dance with another human being’_ slow.

You put some distance between your bodies, but you keep your arms around Carmilla’s neck and her hands stay on your hips. You’ve stopped dancing altogether and now you’re just looking at each other. You’re trying to figure out what she wants to do next. Does she want to keep dancing? Does she want to run away and never contact you again? Who knows? Not you. Her expression is unreadable.

“Do you wanna step outside for a moment?” She suddenly asks and you’re glad she suggested going outside because it’s a little warm and hard to breathe in here.

“Yeah, sure.” You say, awkwardly unwrapping your arms from around her neck but instantly missing the contact when she removes her hands from your waist.

You follow her through the crowd, cutting through the kitchen and then through the glass double doors that lead to the backyard and the pool. There are people jumping and splashing around the pool and you can’t help but think of the horror in your dad’s eyes if he saw what you’re seeing right now. It’s mid-December so how they aren’t freezing to death, you don’t know, but hopefully nobody will get hurt tonight.

“I’m sorry if you wanted to keep dancing, but it was getting a bit too hot and crowed in there.” Carmilla says, interrupting your train of thought.

“Oh, it’s fine. I also needed a little break. You know, because of the heat… and the crowd…” You release a nervous chuckle and hope she doesn’t notice how flustered you still are.

“Hey, I…“ She pauses. “I have an idea. But you’re gonna have to trust me, okay?” She says, surprising you.

“Okay?” You say and she extends her hand.

You hesitate for a moment, but you trust her, so you take her hand and she starts leading you towards the woods that begin where Kirsch’s backyard ends.

After a whole minute of walking through the woods, you can’t keep your questions to yourself anymore.

“Where are you taking me?” You say, following closely behind Carmilla through the trees, not letting go of her hand.

It’s freaking you out to be walking through the woods in the dark. You’ve played enough video games to know that combining darkness with woods usually doesn’t end well, but the way Carmilla is trudging through without the help of a flashlight, like she’s walked this path a thousand times before and knows it by heart, is helping you keep calm. The way she’s squeezing your hand, like she’s afraid she might lose you among the trees, also helps.

She stops suddenly and you almost run into her. She turns to you and it’s mesmerizing how you can still see a glint in her almost black eyes, even in this darkness. You don’t know why she’s stopped and right now you don’t really care because she has just noticed your staring and she’s giving you that typical smile, the one that’s both teasing you for getting caught and also shy and embarrassed because she probably doesn’t know how beautiful she is, and god… do you love that smile.

“Look up, cutie” She says and you’re confused.

“What?”

“Look,” She points and looks to the sky and you follow her stare, “up.”

It’s dark, but you can still clearly see a tree house right above you. You gasp because you were definitely not expecting this, but you’re slowly being overcome by excitement. You’ve never been in a tree house, but you wanted one so badly when you were a kid. You’d ask your dad to build you one in the backyard but he’d always refused, claiming that it wasn’t safe, that there’s no good reason for you to be playing at such high altitudes or you might get hurt.

“Carm! This is awesome!” You say, unable to contain your excitement and allowing your voice to almost go up an octave.

She chuckles and places her hands and feet on the wooden boards nailed to the tree that make up the ladder, and then turns to you.

“I’ll meet you upstairs then.” She says with a smirk before quickly climbing up the ladder like she has done it a thousand times.

You just stand there frozen in bewilderment. You were not expecting your night to turn out like this, but you’re not complaining.

After a bit, Carmilla pokes her head out of the tree house entrance to check on you.

“Need any help?” She asks.

“No, I got it.” You say, placing your hands on the wooden boards and making your way up. As you reach the end of the ladder and you’re about to lift yourself up, Carmilla offers you her hand. You take it and she pulls you up until you’re on your feet in front of her.

You’re standing on a small balcony overlooking the woods, and it’s still a bit scary from up here. To your left is the entrance to the tree house, with a door made up of a piece of cloth that’s flowing with the light breeze.

“After you, sweetheart.” Carmilla says, pushing the piece of cloth to the side.

You enter and at first it’s dark, so you can’t see much, and it smells weird. Not bad necessarily, but weird. Carmilla switches on the flash on her phone, allowing you to kind of see all the posters on the walls. Most of them are of video games, but there are a few posters of comic book superheroes. There’s one of Batman with a long tear in the middle. It appears that maybe someone dislikes him to the point of taking it out on a poster? You don’t know, but you’d love to hear the story behind that poster.

Carmilla pulls a string and a lightbulb turns on above your head, illuminating the small space and allowing you to study it better. There are three old and dusty beanbags in the far left corner of the small space. Next to them, on the opposite side of the door, there’s a small cabinet with three shelves filled with what seems to be old comics and magazines. On the wall to your right there’s a small window with a curtain made up of the same fabric as the door of the tree house.

“How is there even electricity in here?” You ask, looking at the lightbulb and scrunching up your face.

“It’s magic, cupcake.” Carmilla teases and you narrow your eyes at her. “There’s a solar panel on the roof.”

You nod and move towards the cabinet, studying all the comic books.

“I’m surprised it even works, I haven’t been up here in years.” Carmilla says as she tries to get rid of the dust from one of the beanbags.

“You still haven’t told me what this place is. There seems to be so much history here.” You clean up one of the beanbags and sit next to Carmilla.

“Kirsch’s dad built this for him before his parents got divorced. Then we met in high school and we used to come up here with Will all the time to hang out after school. It was our secret spot. No one was allowed up here, just us. It was our favorite place in the world.”

“This place really is special to you.” You smile. “I’m glad you shared this with me.”

“You should feel honored, we don’t just let any girl up here.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes.” She smirks. “Only the really special ones.”

Your heart just skipped a beat and it’s suddenly a little hard to breathe. Although, now that you’re thinking about it, you hardly believe that you’re the only girl that Carmilla has deemed special enough to bring up here.

“And on how many girls have you used that line before?” You ask, trying to hide your disappointment.

“None.” She says without skipping a beat. “Just you.”

She leaves you speechless once again. She has the ability of doing that so easily. You’re trying to think of something to say. Anything. But before you can open your mouth and possibly further embarrass yourself with a ridiculous rant, she’s talking again.

“Kirsch on the other hand… He brought his fair share of ladies up here. I’m pretty sure he even had his first kiss up here with… um… what’s her face? PJ? CJ? SJ? I don’t know, something with a J. Anyway, that bitch ended up breaking his heart a week later.”

“Aww, you care about him.” You tease her.

“No, I don’t.” She frowns.

It’s incredible to you how Carmilla can go from a super confident and flirtatious person to an embarrassed five year old in 0.2 seconds.

“Yeah, you do. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone!”

“Whatever.” She says, crossing her arms over her chest and you giggle. She’s too cute.

You get up from the beanbag and move towards the window, pushing back the curtain and leaning on it, sticking your head outside to look around. The darkness freaks you out and all the common noises you hear when you’re in the woods automatically become creepy when it’s dark. Carmilla almost makes you jump when she leans on the window right next to you.

“Jesus, Carm. Don’t do that!”

“Are you afraid of the dark, cutie?”

“Pfff no!”

“Yeah right.”

You narrow your eyes at her because there’s no way she doesn’t find a forest creepy during nighttime. On second thought, knowing Carmilla, she probably finds it comforting or poetic or something along those lines.

“You cannot tell me you aren’t the tiniest bit unsettled by all the creepy little noises.” You say and she scrunches up her face in confusion.

“What creepy noises?” She asks, and as soon as she finishes that sentence, you hear what sounds like a branch snapping and leafs rustling around.

“Those creepy noises! What the heck was that?” You’re more than a little freaked out now.

“It’s probably just the wind, Laura.” She says, holding your hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze, which surprisingly helps you relax a bit.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. It’s just the wind. It’s just the wind.” You mumble that last part, in an attempt to convince yourself that it was indeed just the wind and that you’re not going to be murdered in a tree house tonight.

After a moment of silence, Carmilla never letting go of your hand, she turns to you with a nervous expression clear on her face.

“Hey, I uh… I wanted to talk to you about something.” She says hesitantly.

“What is it?” You ask, offering her a reassuring smile and squeezing her hand.

“I uh… I just...” She hesitates. “I don’t know how to say it.”

You think you know what she wants to say. At least you hope it is what you think it is. You’ve been wanting to say it too for a while now, but every time you feel like it’s a good moment to say it, every single scenario of how it can go wrong starts playing in your head, and in every single one of those scenarios you end up losing Carmilla.

The thought of losing her is enough to convince you to keep your mouth shut and be grateful that you at least get to call her a friend.

“It’s okay, Carm. It’s just me.”

“Exactly, Laura. It’s _you_.” She points out and you sigh.

“What do you mean, _it’s me_? We’re friends, right? Don’t you trust me?”

“Cupcake, of course I trust you.” She says, offering you a small smile. “And yes, we are… friends.” She hesitates on that last word and you can see it in her eyes that saying it stings just as much as hearing it.

You squeeze her hand to get her attention. You want her to look at you. She’s so hard to read but you’re getting better at it. She finally looks up at you and a smile tugs at the corners of your lips on instinct. She offers you a smile too, followed by a deep sigh and she’s looking at you with such intensity. It’s breathtaking.

You know she wants to say it. You’re so sure of it. It’s taking every bit of strength in your body not to utter the words _“I don’t want to just be your friend.”_ or _“I really really really REALLY like you”_ or _“I think about kissing you for what is probably a concerning amount of time, but I don’t care because GOD do I really want to kiss you…”_. It is also taking every bit of strength in your body not to kiss her right now. She’s beautiful, as always, but the way the moonlight is highlighting her features is just… _wow_. You don’t even have the words to describe it, you just know that you’re completely mesmerized by her.

So mesmerized, in fact, that you almost miss the way she’s moving closer to you and her gaze is dancing between your lips and your eyes. Your heart feels like it’s trying to beat right out of your chest, but when your mind catches up to what’s happening (or what’s about to happen) you look at her lips too and you move closer until your foreheads are touching.

You can feel her hot breath on your lips and it’s entirely too much. You decide to _girl the hell up_ and close the gap between you, but before you can do it, your phone starts ringing and vibrating in your pocket and you both jump at the sound.

“Shit!” Carmilla curses, clutching at her chest and gasping for air.

You fumble for the phone in your back pocket, almost letting it fall to the floor more than once before sliding your finger to take the call and bringing it to your ear.

“WHAT?!” You shout, not really meaning to, but you’re rather… aggravated by the current events.

“ _Where the hell are you, Laur?_ ” Lafontaine says on the other end. “ _We’ve been looking for you all over the place. I’m pretty sure Perry is two seconds away from hyperventilating._ ”

“I’m uh…” You chance a look at Carmilla and she looks angry. “I’m with Carmilla. We were… about to head back.”

“ _It’s getting late, we should probably go if you still want to catch some sleep before your flight. Meet Per and I by the car, okay?”_

“I’ll be there in 5.” You say, hanging up the call and turning to Carmilla. “I need to head back.”

She frowns but moves to the tree house entrance, moving back the cloth for you to pass. As you walk past her, you look at her apologetically. You hope she knows how upset you are that your moment was interrupted.

 

* * *

 

You’re almost back at the house. You’ve been walking in silence through the woods side by side with Laura.

Obviously this had to happen to you. You had to be rudely interrupted by the ginger twins at the worst fucking moment, which, on the bright side, finally gives you a reasonable excuse to start plotting their murders.

_Ugh._

Laura was so close, you could feel her breath on your lips and that moment was just… bliss. You hesitated, that’s true. You were waiting for a sign from her that she was okay with what was going on, and you think she was because you’re pretty sure she was about to close the gap between you before that god awful call from Lafontaine.

You can tell that she has noticed that you’re upset. How could you not be? But at the same time you don’t want her to be upset too. You don’t want to ruin her night. And what a night it has been…

You sigh and chance a glance at Laura. She’s quiet and looking at the ground as she navigates the fallen branches and rocks along the way. She looks… disappointed? You’re not sure, but you don’t like to see her like this. You much prefer her beaming smile when you see each other after being apart for a few days, or the red on her cheeks when you tease her.

Suddenly you feel her hand in yours and she intertwines your fingers. A smile quickly tugs at the corners of your lips and then you feel a quick kiss on your cheek. You look at Laura and she offers you small smile, which you return and you can already feel the tension leaving your shoulders.

You walk hand in hand until you reach the front of the house where the ginger twins are already waiting, leaning against their car.

“There you are!” Laf shouts when they finally spot you and Laura.

“Sorry, guys. I kind of lost track of time.” Laura responds.

“Ready to go?” Laf asks.

“Yeah, just give me a minute.” She says, and when her friends enter the car to wait for her, she turns to you. “Thank you.” She says and you scrunch up your face in confusion.

“For what, cutie?”

“Just… I don’t know… For tonight, I guess. I had a lot of fun.” She smiles.

“Me too.”

You mimic her smile and just stand there, looking at her, because honestly you’re at a loss for words. She has a way of doing this to you.

“Promise to call me while I’m away?” She breaks the silence.

“Ugh, I guess…” You tease her and she playfully smacks your arm. “Of course, cupcake.” You assure her with a smile.

“I’m gonna miss you, Carm.” She says and then envelops you in an unexpected hug and it takes you a second to hug her back because of the surprise, but eventually your mind catches up and your arms wrap around her waist and you nuzzle your face against her neck.

“Have a safe flight.” You say when you two break apart.

She waves you goodbye and gets in the car. They drive away and you’re once again left alone, without your cupcake.

Without Laura.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gross :')
> 
> Thank you for reading and leave a comment if you want telling me what you think and feel free to POINT OUT ANY MISTAKES as I'm sure I must have made quite a few.
> 
> I know this took a while, but I'm beyond excited to share the next chapter with you as I have a lot of fun stuff planed ;)
> 
> Also: THAT TRAILER THO.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading, i hope you enjoyed it!  
> come talk to me on tumblr at frillyhella :)


End file.
